External thermometer - check
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My 2018 Stelvio outside temp is worthless. Took it to the dealer last Wednesday.....the sensor is in the right outside rear view mirror. They did the troubleshooting working with AR Star Service. Mirror has to to replaced. Still at the dealer waiting for the mirror assembly to come in. Will post if and when I get my car back as to resolution.
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It's completely inaccurate no matter how much time is spent driving. My Android Auto home screen shows weather and the car can read as high as 8 Celsius (14 F) higher
Same experience
Another useless piece of electronics to go with the rest of the infotainment system. Really, pathetic.
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Yeah, mine is way off too. I don't think they even attempted to calibrate it correctly.
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Not remotely close. Minor niggle I will wait for a permanent fix on before winter.
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Hi TomMac,
If you need any additional assistance while you are working with your dealer on this, please let us know. Just send our team a private message if this is something that interest you.
Julie
Alfa Romeo Social Care Specialist
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Does anyone really expect a simple thermometer on the underside of the passenger side mirror on a car to be consistently accurate? I sure don't. My car is in and out of the sun/shade at varying speeds and other changing heat environments.
If I have it parked for example in an open recessed area of a building with consistent outside temperature and heat sources such as sunlight (like in a covered loading dock) then maybe it will be close to the actual temperature. On the other hand if I have it parked in an open parking lot with steady sun for some time it will read very high. Recently we parked outside at a mall about 80 degrees on our Giulia reading. When we came out to the car later it read about 98 degrees (direct sun on that passenger side mirror, no surprise). Actual temp was about 78-82 degrees during that time. I would pretty much normally ignore the external thermometer. It could be slightly helpful in the winter if I was parked outside for many hours. If I saw that the temp reading had dropped from 35 degrees to 28 degrees then I might be careful of any ice on the road.
If I have it parked for example in an open recessed area of a building with consistent outside temperature and heat sources such as sunlight (like in a covered loading dock) then maybe it will be close to the actual temperature. On the other hand if I have it parked in an open parking lot with steady sun for some time it will read very high. Recently we parked outside at a mall about 80 degrees on our Giulia reading. When we came out to the car later it read about 98 degrees (direct sun on that passenger side mirror, no surprise). Actual temp was about 78-82 degrees during that time. I would pretty much normally ignore the external thermometer. It could be slightly helpful in the winter if I was parked outside for many hours. If I saw that the temp reading had dropped from 35 degrees to 28 degrees then I might be careful of any ice on the road.
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Every car I've owned in the past has been fairly accurate once I've been driving for 10 minutes or so and the sensor has a chance to stabilize and read the ambient air temp. My Stelvio, even after driving for a long period of time is nowhere near the actual temp. Example: I was on a 3hr road trip, cruising speed of 85mph, and the temp gauge said it was 98 degrees F, actual temp was 82. I've done this same road trip with other vehicles and none have been that far off. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter because it doesn't really affect anything but it's just silly they couldn't put a little more effort into getting it more accurate. I guess just chalk it up as another weird oddity about this vehicle.
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5-15 degrees too high seems about right. This is just a total lack of calibration, like they forgot!! My last several cars have been accurate within a degree. 33 wet roads, 32 watch it!!, 31 dull and freezing. I heavily rely on it all winter long!! Can't tell you the number of times a front/temp drops occurs and you watch temps swing 10 degrees in 10-15 minutes/miles!!! Thought most were upfront in front fascia area?? I do not care about the initial start up reading but once underway I DO EXPECT THIS SAFETY DEVICE TO BE ACCURATE.
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Especially since I intend to harass AR until they fix the remote start automatically activating the heated seats and wheel. This will require a more accurate external temperature reading to operate correctly.
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No offense, but how do you know it was actually 82 degrees? Just like how did ViscontiVerde 164L know that his last several cars have been accurate within a degree :wink. On previous trips was the weather exactly the same, same amount of sun, etc. Were the sensors in the same location on the cars?
Here are some facts. It is actually a thermistor and not a thermometer in your car. The thermistors are actually quite inexpensive and accurate. However, our problem is that a car is a difficult environment for a temperature sensor. Many cars have the sensors near the front bumper and the engine, heat sources. These are also too close to many times a very hot roadway. Placing the sensor in the side mirror like AR is actually better than near the engine. British Rover brand sedans used to have an Ice-Alert safety sensing system near the front bumper which would warn the driver as the temp on the road neared freezing, but that was its singular safety purpose. There are no good locations on a car for a temp sensing thermsitor for consistent every day consistent use. They are all too close to the engine, concrete or asphalt road, glass, tires, direct sun exposure, etc. Note that most weather stations also have thermistors but locate them in ideal places away from buildings, trees, etc. and they place them fairly high above grass or soil and they are sun/solar shielded, etc. A temperature sensor on top of a hot building is a poor location. The temperature bank signs above hot asphalt parking lots usually read inaccurately high.
The times that your car temp sensors will be most accurate are in cloudy weather or at night. I still would not consider any of them to be very accurate. Just a sometimes fun feature, but don't bet your life on them. If you want to check the general accuracy of your Stelvio or Giulia temp sensor wait until it is in your garage or enclosed building like a parking lot for some time and compare the reading to a fairly accurate thermometer you might have that you place for a test comparison on or near the mirror. I'll pick a thermistor sensor in my passenger mirror any day over one behind the front bumper! I'll take both of them with a huge grain of salt.
Here's what a supposed expert says. There are many of these. I'll only bore you with one. :smile
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Look, I don't care about all the technical details of how it does or doesn't work. The fact of the matter is I've done this same road trip once or twice a month for the past 9 years. I'm in SoCal. The weather couldn't be anymore consistent. I can check the weather at a local weather station and compare to my vehicle. All my past vehicles it was always within a couple of degrees F from the local stations (and as I mentioned before this is assuming I've been moving around for a bit). The Stelvio was 15 degrees off. Please explain how other manufactures can get it pretty accurate but AR can't?
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It's obvious that you really don't care about the technical details of how it does or doesn't work (of course they are all nonsense anyway, I was just making it all up) so I won't explain. I wasn't offended. My round table meter is registering 82. Sounds about right.
BTW, how did you get the name sweetness? I don't care about the 34.
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Update on mirror thermistor and more facts
I thought I would take my own suggestion posted above to carefully check out the accuracy of my Giulia's mirror temperature sensor. Others have posted that theirs are way off. I don't buy the claims when no objective details are offered. i'm guessing they are using the weather temperature reports from some radio stations on a trip and who knows how far from their Stelvio/Giulia. Others might be reading the temp on a bank or mall sign. I'm not saying there might not be some defective units, but most likely very rare. However, before bugging a dealer or AR I would try my simple test I'll relate here below and see what results you get.
Yesterday Giulia was parked in my garage, very steady temperatures all day with no active heat sources close. I have two Oregon Scientific home portable weather stations. These are nice high quality units, that are spec'd to be within 0.2 degrees F. I placed them side by side and noted that they were exactly 0.2 F different from each other. When one read 70.0 F the other read 70.2 F. Same when I tested them several times.
I placed one of them in two different testings very close to the mirror. Once at about 5 inches from the sensor knob on the mirror and the second time was about 8 inches. I made sure the units were stable, would not fall and left them for several hours to adjust to the correct temp as their up and down changes are very slow but accurate. I turned on the ignition in my Giulia and read the temp reading from the dash.
Test #1 --- Giulia read 70 degrees ..... OS unit read 70.8 degrees.
Test #2 --- Giulia read 71 degrees ..... OS unit read 72.5 degrees.
So in two tests we have a variation of 0.8 and 1.5 degrees. That's an average difference of 1.15 degrees F. I consider this basically one degree off of a very reliable source (OS unit) mere inches away from the AR sensor to be way more than adequately accurate. i presume as I drive the Giulia away from the ideal test lab in my garage and out into the real world of hot sun, hot asphalt, hot engine, hot tires, hot chicks who flock around Giulia to gawk and ask me for a ride, bank temp signs, radio temp reports and many other circumstances that will affect the accuracy reading of the mirror thermastor, that I'll simply ignore the dash reading. When I come out of the mall or sushi joint after several hours on a cold day, I will look at the dash reading with the engine off as it might warn me of a drop to freezing or below. For me that is the practical purpose of the sensor in the mirror.
Chuck :smile
Make Alfa Romeo Great Again!
I thought I would take my own suggestion posted above to carefully check out the accuracy of my Giulia's mirror temperature sensor. Others have posted that theirs are way off. I don't buy the claims when no objective details are offered. i'm guessing they are using the weather temperature reports from some radio stations on a trip and who knows how far from their Stelvio/Giulia. Others might be reading the temp on a bank or mall sign. I'm not saying there might not be some defective units, but most likely very rare. However, before bugging a dealer or AR I would try my simple test I'll relate here below and see what results you get.
Yesterday Giulia was parked in my garage, very steady temperatures all day with no active heat sources close. I have two Oregon Scientific home portable weather stations. These are nice high quality units, that are spec'd to be within 0.2 degrees F. I placed them side by side and noted that they were exactly 0.2 F different from each other. When one read 70.0 F the other read 70.2 F. Same when I tested them several times.
I placed one of them in two different testings very close to the mirror. Once at about 5 inches from the sensor knob on the mirror and the second time was about 8 inches. I made sure the units were stable, would not fall and left them for several hours to adjust to the correct temp as their up and down changes are very slow but accurate. I turned on the ignition in my Giulia and read the temp reading from the dash.
Test #1 --- Giulia read 70 degrees ..... OS unit read 70.8 degrees.
Test #2 --- Giulia read 71 degrees ..... OS unit read 72.5 degrees.
So in two tests we have a variation of 0.8 and 1.5 degrees. That's an average difference of 1.15 degrees F. I consider this basically one degree off of a very reliable source (OS unit) mere inches away from the AR sensor to be way more than adequately accurate. i presume as I drive the Giulia away from the ideal test lab in my garage and out into the real world of hot sun, hot asphalt, hot engine, hot tires, hot chicks who flock around Giulia to gawk and ask me for a ride, bank temp signs, radio temp reports and many other circumstances that will affect the accuracy reading of the mirror thermastor, that I'll simply ignore the dash reading. When I come out of the mall or sushi joint after several hours on a cold day, I will look at the dash reading with the engine off as it might warn me of a drop to freezing or below. For me that is the practical purpose of the sensor in the mirror.
Chuck :smile
Make Alfa Romeo Great Again!
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