Outside Temperature Gauge

I notice (probably due to hot Kansas Summers) that after I have driven my Ridgline in 80 degree + weather and turn it off, when I start it up again the outside temperature on the dash will read 90 to 100+ degrees and will not go down to the real outside teperature until the Ridgline is turned off and sits for some time.

Could it be a faulty sensor or is it normal?

Thanks for any imput.

It's a combination of the sensor being behind the bumper and heat reflecting off the road.

This is addressed in the owner's manual.

I have an RT so I don't have a temperature sensor but my Chevy Blazer had one and it seemed to average the temperature over time so it wasn't fluctuating up and down constantly. The effect was that if it was 40 degrees when I drove into work, it would read 40 degrees for about 3 minutes when I went to lunch even though it might be 70 degrees outside by that time. After three minutes it would start to read the correct temperature.

That might be what you are seeing. Just a time delay for the sensor to zero in on the correct reading. But I'm only guessing because I have a Ridgeline RT. I bought an external temp sensor I stuck on the inside of the bumper but it doesn't work very well. The bumper seems to heat up from the sun and throw off the sensor accuracy. My Blazer did a really good job and every time I drove by a bank that had a temperature display my Blazer temp gauge was right on the mark.


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I notice (probably due to hot Kansas Summers) that after I have driven my Ridgline in 80 degree + weather and turn it off, when I start it up again the outside temperature on the dash will read 90 to 100+ degrees and will not go down to the real outside teperature until the Ridgline is turned off and sits for some time.

Could it be a faulty sensor or is it normal?

Thanks for any imput.
The manual says something like do not believe the temperature until a few minutes of driving at speed. Sitting in traffic or just turning the truck on will have higher display. ... it's a paraphrase. :)

I set my temp guage to the min. setting (-5) as if I am getting close to freezing, I want to be aware of possible icy conditions. I think that it still displays hotter than it really is, oh well.

The outside temp gauge on my '96 Astro had a rather involved algorithm to determine what and when to display. Took over half a page to describe in the service manual. Details are a bit fuzzy at this point, but...

If the vehicle had not been off for 4 hour or more, when you started it up, the temp displayed what it had been when you shut if off.

Vehicle had to be traveling 18mph for temp update to happen. Update frequence increased when speed over 36mph.

There's a really terrific post by djdj about how the outside temp works on the RL and how to adjust it. Look at his post here (you'll need to scroll down a bit to post #16):
http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2580&highlight=Thermometer

my temp gauge consistenly shows it to be quite a bit hotter than it actually is. For example, it read 87 degrees the other day when i know it wasn't more than 75 outside.

Same here. Of all of the cars I've had with outside thermometers, this is the least accurate, whether moving or not.

Same here. Of all of the cars I've had with outside thermometers, this is the least accurate, whether moving or not.

I was thinking about this when i went out for lunch earlier. I know it's 79-80degrees here today. I drove past 3 diff. banks and all 3 said 79 or 80. My readout showed 91 :mad:

Mine is real close. I've compared to the ones at banks, and what is on the news and I'm usually within a degree or two, if not right on the money.

It is brutal here in Texas right now. I drove by two banks today within 5 minutes of each other. One showed 103 degrees and one should 109 degrees. All the while my Ridgeline sort of fluctuated between 109 and 104. Anyway, I don't care because I can't tell the difference between those temps. When it is this hot it makes no difference what it says.

You can recalibrate this readout. It is in the owner's manual how to do this. Mine had been consistenly 5 degrees high until I recalibrated. Now it is pretty much right on.

There are two possibilities here, one is that your temperature guage needs to be adjusted as per the owners manual, the other is radiated heat from the roadway. I find that my RL shows a temperature that is close to accurate when I am parked on gravel in my parking area. When I drive on the newly paved roads in our area (very black asphalt) the display rises by at least 4 degress Centigrade. When I then get onto the highway which is concrete, therefore lighter coloured, the display drops to a lower temperature, but still slightly higher than my parking pad, and again it rises when I drive back onto the black asphalt.

This might sound stupid, but I suspect the temperature guage is very sensitive to heat reflection and radiation off the roadway. Perhaps in a redesign Honda will move the sensor to a better location, perhaps with the high mount brake light for example.