COLUMBIA, S.C. — The hottest part of your day, opening up the car door in the afternoon. Not only do you feel the heat but you also see the temperature rising on your dashboard. More often than not during the summer months that temperature will be getting close to the triple digits. The only issue? It is way off from the real temperature outside.
The instrument that reads this temperature is known as the ambient air sensor and it works with other parts of the car to help keep you cool.
Rob Whetzel owner of Whetzel Automotive says plays an important part in keeping you cool.
“The car needs that sensor input and it correlates it into the interior sensor input and what it does is adjusts your climate control.”
The reason why it can show temperatures so much hotter than it really is though comes down to its placement.
“Almost all of them are located in the front of the car in the grill, most of them are located very low close to the asphalt of the road.”
In the summer road temperatures can soar to over 120 degrees, along with a hot radiator and even engine temperatures pushing over 200 degrees all nearby, that 86 degree air becomes what you see your dashboard. 91 degrees.
So while, you can gauge if its hot or not by just stepping in your car, if you want the accurate temperature getting that information from sources like WLTX.
As for temperatures inside the car, regardless of what the weather is like outside this time of the year, the interior of cars can become sweltering in the summer rising as much as 20 degrees in as little as 20 minutes.
