It happens, it takes a minute or two to update the sensor. I usually notice this when I park in the garage, and the ambient temperature change isn't drastic. It doesn't happen all the time and usually updates itself in a minute or two. I don't think the thermometer reading on the display is real time. It only refreshes every 60 seconds or so.

 

I too have the same issue, I believe the outside temperature sensor is in the wrong spot or does not read with the engine off. I thought of taking it to the service, but I know they would say "It's working as designed". No big :surprise:

 

There is another thread on this last updated 05/05/16. It is also called "Outside Temperature Display" in the "Electronics, Audio, and Lighting" section. It mentions a TSB in there, hopefully that thread may be able to help.


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Thanks but that particular thread deals with the problem of the display not updating in a timely manner. That was the first issue I had and that TSB was applied to correct it. Ever since that was done it updates fine but the issue with the outside temperature display reading too hot at start up began to happen.

 

Is your Jeep overnighted in a garage? The temp might be high due that.

 

No. It happens when the car is parked outside. I live in New Jersey. We had a couple of warm days a couple of weeks ago where the temperature was in the low 80's. I had parked the car outside in the shade and when I started it up later in the day the outside temp display read 109 degrees on start up.

 

I've had this issue with every car I've ever owned with an outside temp display. I just figured it's because the sensor is on the windshield, near the rearview mirror, which gets hotter than Hades when it sits in the sun for a while. Once I get in and start driving, it settles down and gives me a more ambient air temp reading rather than the fry-an-egg-on-it windshield temp.

 

This is correct. My 2005 Ford F150 was the same way.

DK

 

Mine is the same way. It is probably picking up heat from the ambient air under the hood, given off by the radiator.

 

Buy yourself a heatshield windscreen insert. It will keep the Sun out off your dash and the sensor will read just fine.

It's a $45 fix to an issue that goes away after just a few minutes of driving in chilly weather, but the heatshield is custom made for every vehicle and is well worth the tariff in Sunny warm Summer.


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I always thought these were located behind the rear bumper on most vehicles. It would not make sense for it to be inside the windshield--that would not give you an oudoor temperature reading. Or am I missing something?

 

Ah, man, I think you're right! I don't know why I assumed it was on the windshield with the rain sensor and other stuff. A little googling indicates that most car manufacturers place the sensor behind the front bumper. It does make more sense to have it outside of the vehicle.

 

The temperature sensor is in front of the radiator, so that as you are driving it is picking up the ambient temp of the air coming into the front of the vehicle. After you drive a bit and the engine warms up, then park, the sensor will be affected by the heat coming off the radiator while it is parked, and takes a few minutes of driving to come down to the actual outside temperature. It was the same in the Mazda that I had before.

 

That makes a lot of sense for short intervals after driving but what about all day? I usually park on the basement level of a parking structure at work and when ambient is in the upper 60s/low 70s the display can read as high as 99 when I start the car to drive home. That is usually 8 hrs or more after I parked so unlikely to still be residual radiant heat on the sensor?

 

My 2006 Jeep Commander had it located on the passenger side of the radiator. there was a TSB to move it it to the left a few inches, to give a more accurate reading, because it read too high. It was too close to the radiator.

The sensor on my Commander was a small cylinder, about 1/4" in diameter, and about 2-3" long.

Open the hood of your Cherokee. Just to the left of the drivers side headlight is a little thing pointing straight up, with a wire harness on the bottom. This may be the outside air temperature sensor, a smaller version of the one in my Commander.

The sensor in the center of the dash measures light for the auto headlights, the inside temperature for the Auto HVAC, and one other function that I can't recall; not the outside air temp.

 

Mine does the same thing. Especially when parked outside. The ambient temp might be 80F, but when I start the car it might show 120F. It goes back down after 2-3mins and is accurate +-2F after that.

My biggest issue is that the auto seat cooling/heating is based off the temperature of when the car starts, making the feature not work properly since it doesn't actually have the right temperature. With that said, living in Florida, it's >80F for 363 days out of the year, so it doesn't affect me all that much.

 

.... The issue this creates is that I have the auto setting turned on for the heated and cooled seats and they will come on when I do not need them or want them to because of the incorrect outside temperature display.

Wouldn't the system be measuring the interior's temperature when deciding whether or not to turn on the heated/cooled seats?

 

I thought the same thing! But I usually keep my driver side temp set at about 72. If the outside temp gets below that, the heat will come on... even if it's already comfortable in the cabin. Our Mercedes is the same way, though. My older Volvo didn't do that... it relied strictly on the cabin air temp sensor. Of course, I could be way off base here... again! Ha!

 

I do believe it goes by outside temp. I have many times driven to work in freezing temps, stopped for coffee halfway (shut car off) got back in restarted with the steering and seat heat turning back on automatic. Inside was still warm from the drive.

 

All of the following are automatically activated based upon a temperature reading below 40F:
- 4WD
- Rear window defrost...upon remote start
- Side mirror defrost...upon remote start
- Wiper deicer...upon remote start
- Heated seat...upon remote start
- Heated steering wheel...upon remote start
- HVAC defrost mode...upon remote start

I doubt the computer is referencing more than 1 sensor for these features. Therefore, I agree with @Xchief...I suspect the sensor that is triggering these features is the outside air sensor.

 

The auto cooled seats have been activated on my car when the the air temperature was 60 degrees but the outside temperature display on start up was reading an incorrect 80 to 85 degrees.

 

The first vehicule I've owned that had outside temp displayed was a 2002 Liberty Limited (KJ). I clearly recall it was not only very accurate, on the move, but also spot on at startup. All the time. So this underperforming sensor in the KLs is kinda mind boggling... Tech should be improving at we go forward in time, not retrograde... Maybe the KJs did it better because of the Mercedes touch, who knows...

 

I just started noticing this on my 2017 jeep which has been nothing but problems. Oil burns all the time, back up camera always goes fuzzy when the trunk is closed. But recently I noticed last night in the garage where the temp was about 72F it showed 99F. It didn't correct itself until I was about 5min into my drive. Noticed it again the next morning almost the same exact numbers. Hopefully this isn't a concern.

 

Ok I am having the opposite issue, mine temperature is saying it is colder than the outside temperature

Right now it is reading 24° however the outside temperature is around 55° at 2:45pm in western PA

It was actually reading 24° this morning, when it did feel 24°...so wondering why it is not updating?! And even though the outside temp is now 55° my heated seats and steering wheel activated since the computer thinks it’s 24° out there

Any thoughts??

 

Can’t figure out how delete my original post...so PLEASE DISREGARD IT...posting on the forum scared it...it’s working now...for now at least

 

Has anyone ever figured out a solution to the outside temp reading wrong and on the start ups not allowing the heated/cooled seats to turn on due to the temperature being wrong? I live in Michigan, have a 2018 Grand Cherokee summit and my temperature at night and during the day always reads 10 degrees higher than outside. It is currently 32 degrees f° and my gauge reads 45 and does not change until I drive for a CPL minutes. It's super annoying because the leather seats are freezing and don't turn on because the temp must be under 40 to do so when the setting is activated. Can anyone help with this?

 

Hello, this is a Jeep Cherokee forum, not a Grand Cherokee forum. See here: Grand Cherokee - WK2 -

 

Mine seems to read high when it's hot outside. When it cools down
it seems to be normal. Just checked with the Jeep in the garage, and
it reads 55*. The thermometer in garage reads 53*.

In the Summer when in the garage it always reads high when
parked in the garage. Then again my garage faces West and gets
hammered by the sun in the Summer.

 

....

 

So last night mine was reading 73* and the garage was 55* Once I was driving about
3-4 mins, it was reading 47*. I guess it's normal...

 

It's physics unfortunately, the sensor is reading the temperature of its' surroundings. When the car is stationary, the air around the sensor is stagnant and if that part of the car is exposed to sunlight, the internal air temperature of that stagnant air will be higher than ambient. The sensor is reading the correct temperature, but it's not the temperature outside the cherokee, but inside the front bumper.
The only way I can imagine for this to be improved, would be to create air flow around the sensor even when the car is stationary.
You could install a computer fan somewhere near the sensor to circulate the air in the space around the sensor inside the bumper. Problem is, it would need to run 24/7 if you want the sensor to be reading close to true ambient temperature AT startup.

 

I think there's something 'special' with the KL though. My 2 previous Libertys had accurate outside temp readings all the time.

A few weeks ago I noticed my outside temp reading was Off by quite a bit (I rarely look), so I kept an eye on it to see how long it would take to get back to 'real' temp. I left home, drove roughly 3 miles at 45 mph before it even started to move in the right direction, and an extra minute or two before it got to the actual outside temp. That's too long, plenty of airflow on the sensor... to me that screams poorly implemented feature.

 

The modern Body computers take an average over time for ambient temperature. My last 2 cars (not Jeeps) were slow to read accurately as well. One of the reasons for this is all the people that complained when the display read too high (or low) when pulling onto hot asphalt, so they moved to a sampled average.
I guess one way around this is to use a sampled average when the car is sitting, but switch to a instantaneous when moving over x mph (say the same value that triggers the auto-locks).
But then you get into the swamp cooler effect when the air is humid.
On my '19 the temp is pretty accurate, so I think the calculations they are using are moving in the right direction. But that doesn't solve anything on older versions.

 

The modern Body computers take an average over time for ambient temperature. My last 2 cars (not Jeeps) were slow to read accurately as well. One of the reasons for this is all the people that complained when the display read too high (or low) when pulling onto hot asphalt, so they moved to a sampled average.
I guess one way around this is to use a sampled average when the car is sitting, but switch to a instantaneous when moving over x mph (say the same value that triggers the auto-locks).
But then you get into the swamp cooler effect when the air is humid.
On my '19 the temp is pretty accurate, so I think the calculations they are using are moving in the right direction. But that doesn't solve anything on older versions.

On my 19 the temp reading sometimes gets wildly off in the winter months. I wouldn't really care except for the days I remote start when it is 10 degrees outside and the Jeep thinks it is 50. No heated seats for me then. 😠