Outside air temp sensor

nealo · May 11, 2012

Hi all,
My outside air temperature reading has been wrong for a while (in winter it was reading about 10deg C when it was 0deg C outside). Because of this, my climate control has been playing up. It thinks the outside air is warm enough to heat the car up so blows freezing cold air in!
I'm wanting to replace the outside air temp sensor on the front bumper as a start, to see if this solves it. I was quoted £25 by my garage for the part and another £20-30 for fitting. Anyone know of anywhere I can get it cheaper and if it's something I'll be able to change myself? I've had the front bumper off before so I'm confident in doing that. But is the sensor just an unplug the old/plug in the new?
Thanks,
Neal

Ol' Timer · May 11, 2012

I replaced mine myself recently without removing the bumper. I have a pre-facelift FR TDi. I bought a replacement from Platinum Car Parts on ebay for £5.95 plus £1 p/p.

The sensor should be located behind the nearside edge of the lower centre grille. You should be able to access it by removing the nearside fog light surround. Mine just unciipped from the side nearest the centre of the car and then hinged open. The sensor clips into a hole in a metal bracket from behind and you can remove it by squeezing in the front flange and pulling it backwards. Once clear you undo a connector to remove it. It is not that obvious where the joint is though.

It's worth changing the sensor as a starting point but it might be bad joints in the instrument cluster which are causing the problems.

lawrieIbizaMk4 · May 11, 2012

It's quite a common fault for them to go wonky! Jack the car up and remove the under tray, first thing to check is the cables and connector, one of the cables had snapped on mine which I I'd checked I wouldn't have had to buy a replacement. You can get access via the fog light surround but it's 10x easier just removing the under tray

Cheapest place to get one is dave at sere or your nearest TPS

nealo · May 11, 2012

Thanks for the responses. Need to service the car soon anyway so undertray it is. Cheers.

nealo · May 29, 2012

So last night I replaced the sensor (after slicing my hands to bits to get at it) while giving the car a service.

It hasn't changed anything - it's still reading higher than it should. After I'd changed it it was reading 19.5degC while my wife's Altea was reading 15degC. This morning when I swapped the cars round, mine was reading 19degC and hers was reading 13degC.

Any ideas what else it could be? Does it need calibrating somehow?

There were no bare wires or nicks in wires that I could see...

I wouldn't be too bothered by being a few degrees out if it wasn't making the climate control blow cold air at me!

johnny_M · Nov 6, 2013

Hi Nealo

Did you manage to get to the bottom of your temperature problem I have a similar issue now reading 5deg lower than the actual temperature.

Have changed the sensor too and found no difference...

Cheers

Veyron · Nov 6, 2013

mines dodgy too, says it was -2 last night!

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Outside air temp sensor

nealo

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Ol' Timer

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lawrieIbizaMk4

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nealo

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nealo

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johnny_M

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Veyron

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