Last night i was driving home on 294 (Chicago) and it was close to 50 degrees outside. I had the cruise set at about 70 (anything less on 294 and i would need a ramp on the back of my car !) anyway, i looked down and my outside tep gauge was on the move, UP UP and awayyyyyyyyy it got up to 122 degrees. I wasnt sure what was going on so i did an old time trick if the car is starting to overheat (at this point i didnt know if it was) i turned the heat on high. i dont know if it is related but about a min later the temp came down to about what it was outside. I turned the heat off. and a little later it started going up again. I parked it in the garage and havent driven it today. Any idea's?? I will tell you i crashed the car last month and got the car back last week but up until last night its been fine. is engine temp related to the outside sensor in any way? thanks all...Happy Holidays !!
Wow. I don't remember hearing anything like that before. I would think that the OAT sensor wouldn't be affected by the engine temp since the engine normally runs at about that temp but never affects the sensor. Is it possible that the sensor wiggled lose and fell into a position allowing it to pick up engine heat? Is your grill blocked? I'm not saying it's related, but until you get this resolved I think it might be a good idea to remove at least some of the block. In my opinion, you will need to see if you can repeat the occurrence. If you can not repeat it predictably, you're going to have a heck of a time convincing the Toyota dealer that it happened. Keep us posted.
One thing i forgot to list, is that since the temps have been low here in chicago i am using the foam grille blockers. 100% blocked today is 0 f. but it happened last night when it was about 50f
As a result of your crash, the sensor was likely dislodged and wasn't properly put back into place during the repairs.
There is a diagram somewhere on PriusChat showing the location of the sensor. It is located behind the front license plate.
