Ambient Temp Sensor Troubleshooting

[TurnThePage]

Right up front, this is not an RV related question, but I know there's tremendous vehicle knowledge and experience to be had here.

We have a 2012 Ford Fusion that doesn't know the outside temperature and thus is unable to heat/cool the inside properly. The temp display will sometimes be accurate briefly, but will soon start drifting downward, eventually bottoming out way below zero, before wandering back upward some. It goes all over the place. Internet research indicated that I should replace the ambient temp sensor, which I did, twice. The sensor I replaced is behind the front bumper and fascia. Is there another sensor? Could a bad fuse cause that behavior? I'm getting ready to remove it all together to see if there's any difference.

[TurnThePage]

Grit dog wrote:
Lol. No mechanic work in the winter?

Damned straight!

My garage is too small to close the doors and have room to work, and I don't need the A/C just yet. Besides, it's my wife's car. :B

[TurnThePage]

Thanks for the research and feedback. Those items are the cabin air temp sensors.

Just to be clear, we're talking about the ambient temp sensor that displays the outside temp and provides input to the HVAC system.

[enblethen]

You might want to look at Rockauto.com as they list two!
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,2012,fusion,3.0l+v6,3015604,heat+&+air+conditioning,cabin+a...

[Grit_dog]

Lol. No mechanic work in the winter?

[TurnThePage]

So... I've learned that there is only one sensor and it's the one I changed. I've also learned that it's semi-common for the wiring to this sensor to get damaged if there is even minor front damage. When this happened, my wife had hit a snow berm.

Also, this sensor absolutely does influence the HVAC system. In the winter it's not too bad, you can always get heat, usually too much, but you can deal with that by cracking a window.

Shouldn't be too difficult to find the damaged wiring once I get going on it, likely next spring.

[jfritz_drfritz]

If I understand this correctly you have two problems. The first is that the outside temperature does not display correctly. I would agree that this is likely related to the ambient temperature sensor in front. However, there is almost certainly a separate sensor that measures the interior car temperature. Fixing the outside temp sensor probably would not fix the HVAC problem. Just my opinion I don't know for sure

[TurnThePage]

Thanks folks. I'll do some more research.

[dodge_guy]

Some cars have 2 sensors, one behind the grille and the other in an outside door mounted mirror.

[ae5573t]

I had a similar problem and like you I replaced the ambient temperature sensor. It didn't fix the problem. I had to replace the ambient temperature sensor connector. That is what fixed my problem.

[enblethen]

There should be two. You replaced the one for the engine control and not the heating/cooling system.
My Chrysler has the passenger comparment sensor internal to the temperature control unit.