How come the USDM doesn't ? Is there any way we can swap the cluster ? What would we need to have this besides the clsuter ? Thanks.

 

You'd need a lot actually. I just installed the auto climate system in my fit and the outside sensor actually runs through this. I imagine it would report the temperature through the bcan signal to the gauge cluster, which you would also need to swap just to have it display the temp.

 

You know, I'm surprised if you actually need an outside sensor. Using Torque with my Asteroid Smart, whenever I connect to the ECU, if the temperature is low, I'll get a "Caution, icy conditions" alert message. I'm not sure where it would be getting the temp from but it's not from the coolant.

 

Cutriss, Thanks for the idea. I always wanted an easy was to monitor the outside air temperature. Is the display showing "ambient air temperature", or "intake air temperature"? I have the ELM 327 OBD Bluetooth transmitter that I got as a gift, but never used, because I already had a scangauge installed. I have an unused android from a recent upgrade, that I could keep in the vehicle. I'll have to download some of the Torque software versions and see what it looks like.

 

I would guess that the torque program is doing it based on either iat or if its got enough programming, timing how quickly the engine cools down based on coolant temps.

Afterall, the lower the ambient air, the faster coolant can dump any heat it has transferred from the engine.

And Torque is simply giving an interpretation of that data.

 

I actually happened to try checking on this last night while I was going to get dinner. I tried displaying Ambient Air Temp (since it was available), but had no value. I didn't go poring through the list to see what temps were actually being reported, I'll try to do that when I think of it.

 

Yeah you are right on this.




Tevida Price

 

Yeah, so I'm pretty sure now that the ice warning comes from whichever value Torque can read, whether it's Ambient Air Temp or Intake Air Temp. I have no value for Ambient Air Temp but IAT has a value, and on ignition, IAT is close enough to ambient that it's reliable enough to issue the warning message (after the engine has been running a while, not so much).

What's interesting is that the ECU *is* providing data for Ambient, it just has no value. I expect that if you were running Torque or anything else interfacing with the computer, you'd only need the sensor connected. I'm curious now if the in-dash multi-function display (the mileage indicator) might automatically add in the ambient temperature in the cycle if there's a valid value provided by the ECU.