Outside Temperature Gauge

[JP4RNR]

I have noticed that after I park awhile and then when I go to restart an hour or so later the outside temperature displayed is 10-15 degrees higher than it actually is when I last parked. For example it was 73 degrees when I parked at 6:00PM. An hour later at 7:00 PM when I restarted outside temp gauge read 92 degrees and took about 2-3 minutes to correct itself. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Uneek]

I haven't noticed it in the 4Runner. But my '05 Tacoma did this before, probably was about 60 F one night and it displayed 80-85 and started dropping a degree every few seconds. After about two minutes, it showed the right temp. I was parked for about an hour to hour and a half.

My buddy says his SC300 and Camry does this as well. I guess it's a Toyota trait.

 

[Koz]

The sensor is reding the engine heat build-up from under the hood. As soon as you start moving the temp will start to drop.

Koz

 

[Mashimaru]

Yup Koz is right about the engine heat build up. If you open the hood of your 4runner, you'll see the sensor on the lower right in front of the radiator on the horizontal beam that goes across.

 

[nated05]

Yup Koz is right about the engine heat build up. If you open the hood of your 4runner, you'll see the sensor on the lower right in front of the radiator on the horizontal beam that goes across.

Cool, I always wondered where the sensor was.

 

[TechWrench]

Yup Koz is right about the engine heat build up. If you open the hood of your 4runner, you'll see the sensor on the lower right in front of the radiator on the horizontal beam that goes across.

Also, if you are parked in the sun for a while, it can increase the temp in the area of the sensor until you start to move. Having a dark paint color will increase this effect.

 

[bonedoctor]

Always wondered where the temp probe was located.

Had an old BMW 535i with a computer (was big stuff back in 1985)--it did range, MPG, ave speed, had a speed limit you could set, time, date, could set a security code to disable the vehicle, and had temp. The probe eventually crapped out and the temp would always read 168 degrees!

You could scroll through all the functions without taking your hands off the wheel by pushing the end of the left-side steering wheel stalk. That'd be a nice feature for the 4Runner (+ some additional functions for the computer).