Outside Temp Sender Lies !

Well dunno what to do about this one ...

I just moved the car out of the sun (after being burnt by the seatbelt buckle).... Bloody near killed me just trying to move it to the shade as it was so hot inside (I've opened all the windows and roof to let the heat out. It's dash display was telling me it was 51degrees C outside ..... Yeah right.... It's bloody cold in reality pfffttt.... 51degrees my @rse.

It's a nice balmy cool 45degrees out there under the back porch in the shade...

Sucks living in a cold place like ballarat

It's also a good test for the XM air-con:

the xm had been in the sun for a couple of hours... I bravely ( ) moved it into the shade (temp guage in it telling me the outside temperature was 51 degrees ... it was parked on grass !! NOT heat soaked tar/concrette). Opened the roof and the windows to let some heat out. A short while later I went out, all I could get from the vents was "warmish" air for about 10minutes. Heat radiating from the dash unit itself is horific. I locked the god awful slugomatic gearbox into 2nd so the motor would do more than 1700rpm ....

After about 10minutes, the heat stopped coming out of the dash (the dash crackled and popped while the air-con cooled the whole dash unit down... Sounding a bit like the turbo cooling down in the CX after it's parked) Then I started to get coolish air from the vents. I flicked over to recycle and I think *may* have been able to lower the temperature of the car if I'd driven for another 10minutes.

It's eons ahead of the air-con in the older cars, but still not really upto extreme australian temperatures, though still usable IMO. A local cars air-con probably would have been blasting frozen air through the car before I backed down the drive, heat soak and all !

seeya,
Shane L.

Hi Shane,
I'd have thought the aircon ought to cope better than that. Mine had no problems in the summer in northern Italy with the outside gauge reading 44 after being stood in the sun all day. Fired it up and within 5 mins the interior air was nice and cool. Maybe your condensor has got clogged up with flies??
Off topic, but it's a small world. My mother was born in Ballarat, and my grandfather's sisters still live in the same house, nearly 70 years later! Never been there, but I'd love to see the place some day.

Neil

I dont seem to have that problem either Shane, my A/C isnt even working at the moment and my air vents are blowing lovely cool air............about 6 degrees at the moment i would say

D

If you park in a carpark in the direct sun (heat off the paved surface) will show easily 40degrees, when it's actually only 30degrees). The difference between 30degrees and 45 is HUGE !! You need to experience to understand

I'll throw the guages on the XM today and see if she's lost any gas.

seeya,
Shane L.

I had a spare few minutes before I went out .... So I chucked the guages on the XM... Hmm, bugger 30 low side, and 200high side .......... That's gotta be about right :confused: 40degrees in the shade, tepid air at best out of the vents. I revv'd the motor slightly and watch low side plummet to about 15psi .... Bugger me, rev the motor slightly, add gas until I'm back to about 30psi, fans sudddenly start screaming on high speed (must be a trinary switch there) as the high side pressure increases.... Bloody freezing air blasting from the vents

Does this mean I have a leak (bugger it !). I remove the low side fitting, and can see oil bubbling in the charge port.................. Just like when you spit on your bike tire valve to see if it's leaking..... I'll be damned, I'd never have thought of the valves in the service ports might be leaky.... Does anyone know if it's a standard valve that I can tighten with a shrader valve tool (ie: bike/car tire valve tool).

seeya,
Shane L.

This post has been edited by DoubleChevron on January 29, 2009 01:49 am

Not had much experience with more modern systems, but certainly in the days of R12 the valves were bog-standard Schrader ones, so I guess it's worth a go!

I recognize this and have written about it somewhere else; a couple of years ago. My dealer couldn't find the elusive gas leak. I finally found it myself: the schrader valves. Replacing them with original ones from Citroen was a piece of cake, of course

The pdf here http://www.container.carrier.com/Files/Con...US-en/Tool4.pdf shows 2 types of schrader valves used in refrigerating systems.

This post has been edited by Jan-hendrik on January 29, 2009 10:55 am

Holly sh!t,

SWMBO went out in the XM before.... I noticed the temperature guage (pictured above) pegged on 46degrees in the shade Back down to a balmy warm 43degrees now

[SIZE=7]Hi.

Quote DoublChevron "Holy Sh!t.........."

I'm kind of curious. What is Holy Sh!t? Is it full of little holes (possibly caused by curry the night before); is it in the same category as other relics like splinters from the true cross? Perhaps it's a mis-spelling and should read wholly sh!t, as against some kind of sh!t alloy? Maybe Australians produce a kind of hybrid of all three?

This post has been edited by combwork on January 30, 2009 12:18 pm

I must say I am getting a little confused here

Its because, i think, the sensor is on the mirror, when the mirror heats up so does the sensor and tells you its hotter than it really is outside. Though the mirror or sensor may well be as hot as it says.

Usually as you drive it comes down to the right temperature.

This is the hottest ive seen our cars temp for a while:



In france two years ago, it was blistering in the car, it had been stood only an hour! We had left the sunvisors down in the front, it was so hot one of the mirrors in them poped out! Took ages to cool down. I admit that was a Reanult, built quality was not its strong point.

I couldnt live in a hot country, id melt

I always find the Xm pretty accurate otherwise, it always reads the same as the other cars.

I must say I am getting a little confused here.............

It was a comment on original posters last heading.................

I didn't know XM's were exported to Australia. I remember my V6 had a plate under the bonnet saying in effect that if somehow the vehicle made its way there, it would probably be extradited. Was this because in some way the XM failed US safety rules, or that Citroen had little or no service facilities over there?

Our cars temp? Excuse me, which one is this? Doesn't look like an XM . . .