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Why Your Car Thermometer Is Probably Wrong

Now many of us probably pull out our smart phone and pull up the weather app, but a lot of us use our car thermometers to find out todays weather.

GREENSBORO, NC -- It’s a question we often find ourselves asking during the day, what’s the temperature outside? How hot or how cold is it?

Now many of us probably pull out our smart phone and pull up the weather app, but a lot of us use our car thermometers to find out todays weather.

Related: Heat Kills | What You Need To Know To Keep Your Family Safe

What you probably don’t know is that your car is lying to you? It doesn’t mean too but it can’t help it.

Here’s why you should never trust the dash board temperature reading. The car or SUV is a giant metal hot box that conducts heat and is often left in direct sunlight for hours. The heat sensor doesn’t have a radiation shield so the temperature shown on your car temp gauge... is often much hotter than it actually is.

The other big factors deal simply with the location of the sensor. The gauge is right next to the engine, which is often several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. In most cars it’s attached on the front grill which is also about two feet from the scorching hot asphalt, so the sensor often picks up ambient heat from the ground.

Now in the Summer it’s a bit of a bummer if the temperature is off a few degrees but in the Winter it can be dangerous. If your gauge shows it's 35-degrees and rainy, but it's really 30, you might not drive like you're prepared for ice.

The bottom line is don’t trust the temperature reading in your car, it’s more a suggestion than fact.

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