Last week my overhead temperature gauge started giving erroneous readings. Seems that it is displaying about 20 degrees F warmer than actual. If I disconnect it the sensor wiring harness, it defaults to 130 degrees F and stays there. Reconnecting brings it down to 20 degrees over ambient. Any ideas what's wrong? Is there any way I reset or recalibrate the display? Or is it a sensor problem?

 

Mine gave me warmer readings when I put on my cloud rider inserts. Had to move the sensor and problem went away.

 

where is the sensor located??

 

Clean your intake temperature sensor near your air cleaner box with a good electrical contact cleaner.

Shawn

 

thought there was a different sensor for the overhead?

 

Is anything on the overhead console accurate? Apparently I'm getting 25 miles to the gallon and my temp always reads hotter than outside temp.

 

I believe the sensor is mounted between the headlight and radiator when you open the hood and mounted vertically. Thought I saw it there when working on my replacing my chrome insert on my bumper but thats another story.

 

I'm back at you all. The overhead tempurature gauge sensor (at least on the '03's) is found on the front right side, under the hood by opening the hood and is located between the dirver's headlight and the radiator. It is a 1 inch black plastic "tit" that points down and it connected to a wiring harness. I removed the wiring harness plug and discovered some corrosion on the 2 contacts. I cleaned them up with a Q-tip and some (of the wife's) fingernail polish remover, put some di-electric grease on the contacts to their base and on the receptacle of the wiring harness, plugged the harness in and voila (that's French because I'm Canadian eh!, presto for the rest of you) and the truck readout works fine now. I suspect that there was too much resistance on the contacts due to the corrosion which was falsely cranking up the temp readout. Cost me $4.49 for a small tube of Permatex dielectric and took about 10 min to do the cleaning. Now I can really see that is is -20F already.....Just kidding! (on the temp).

 

Mine is located on the left side (driver's side) head light mounting bracket just behind the grill.
Ted

 

Mine reads -40 once in a while!!! Suppose to be a flash to fix the problem.

 

Glad you got it fixed! I forgot that it was in a different spot not protected by the air cleaner.

Shawn

 

I see that I made a mistake in my last post. In actuality, the overhead temperature sensor is indeed on the left, between the driver's side headlight and the left side of the radiator. I said it was on the right side - and that would be only if you were facing the front of the truck. Appologies for any confusion this caused. And my overhead temperature gauge is still working correctly after the application of di-electric grease.