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Check your cabin sensor Posted by Ari [Email] (#2847) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Ari) on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:13:28 In Reply to: Heater cutting out after driving 20-40 minutes or so?, Bri, Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:17:45 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The cabin temperature sensor is that little bulls-eye square in the dashboard. Behind it is a temperature sensor and a fan to pull in cabin air. It also pulls in dust, pet hair, and anything else floating around. This can coat the sensor with a thick coating of dust, and can also jam the fan. If air is no longer being pulled in (jammed fan), the sensor just senses the heat of the stuff behind the instrument panel(which gets pretty warm). So it thinks the car is hot, and cools things off. The same sort of thing can happen if the sensor develops a nice warm, fuzzy coat.
You should be able to hear the fan. Shut off the car, and listen at the bulls-eye. The fan runs for about 5 minutes after the car is shut off.
To clean, if you have access to some compressed air, blow it into the bulls-eye. Don't use 90 psi from a compressor - either use one of those clean air spray cans, or take your compressor and turn down the pressure. You don't want to blow the back off.
If you don't have access to compressed air, or it doesn't work, pop the bulls-eye out of the dash - I use two small flat blade screwdrivers, and 'walk' it out. Be careful not to mar the dash. The sensor is quite long (3 or 4 inches), so don't be surprised. On occasion I'll remove whatever is next to it to get more access. And I keep a piece of string around to tie to the electrical harness. If you take the harness off at the connector, the harness likes to spring back into the dash. With the string attached, getting it out is much easier.
Pop the cover off the front. The sensor is a very small cylinder with a wire from each end at the very front. I'll bet it looks like a wooly caterpillar. Brush it off, and clean off the fan.
DON'T use liquid lubricants, like WD-40 or silicone lube. That'll just trap the dust.
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