overhead console prob

[smhcamaro]

I put in an overhead console in my 92 sport. Everything works great except the temp on it. It will read the temp just fine and accurate for about 5 minutes but then it just sticks at the temp it is at ofter that 5 min. I will then go back out to the car later to go somewhere and it will do the same thing read fine and change with the climate for about 5 min and then stick at the temp it is at. I can pull it into the heated garage with it stuck and it will not change unless I let it go for like a couple of hours with the truck off. I am now on my second temp sensor becuase of this becuase I thought the first was bad when it did this. any suggestions please. its driving me nuts and I cant figure it out.
Thank You,
Steve

 

[Bottomlesspit]

I thought about this one all night...since I installed the same setup in my X a couple months ago. I have not noticed my temp guage sticking like you say...but now I am going to give it a good watch tomorrow!?!
The only weird idea I have come up with is:
Where did you mount the temp sensor? Is it possible it could be mounted in a location, far enough from the engine, yet close enough that it just reads a certain amount of heat generated by the engine? Crazy, I know...but...... I was thinking that maybe the sensor works normal as the engine warms up, but once the heat from the engine is hot enough, it might send off enough heat that it overides the ambient air the sensor should read...thus sticking at that temp. It might not be close enough to the engine to read hot, but close enough to be effected by the fairly constant heat sendoff from the engine? Once the engine finally cools down the cycle starts over. Even in the heated garage, the residual engine heat would probably overpower the ambient air for awhile.
Just shooting in the breeze right now, but I can't think of anything else, barring bad circuitry in the digital part itself.
I'll watch mine tomorrow and see what I get. Good luck.
Ken

 

[smhcamaro]

Well, I see what you are saying, but I dont think it is too close. I have it mounted way down under the engine behind the front bumper so wind will not throw it off with the bumper in fornt of it and it is low enough that engine heat will not be a problem. I actually secured it to a plastic shield under the radiator because I was afraid that if it touched metal it could set it off doing different things also. The only other thing I can even imagine barring any circuitry failure is the temp sensor itself. The one big thing I noticed from the one to the other is the one sometimes when I would unhook it and hook it back up it gave me some odd temp of like -25F? This one does not do that and is very accurate at the start. I did notice with the other one I had when I would bring it inside the house overnight and take it back out the next morning it would read fine again for the first 5 minutes and then stick on one temp for the rest of the ride. During that 5 minutes it would change maybe a degree or two but then just stick at one of them. And I know that is not the constant temp out becuse I will pull it into a heated garage and it will stay at the temp it has been stuck at unless I leave the car alone not running for at least 4 or more hours or even longer.???

Maybe that sheds some light .... im clueless???
Thanks for the help.
Steve