Hey all - long time no talk/read/see on here.

Turned on my car today and the outside temp is stuck at 62 and will not move. Temp here is upper 80s today. Drove around for about 12 minutes and it did not move.

Also, my AC is blowing hot air.

I'm thinking perhaps the two are related.

Any ideas before I take it in and find out what the damage to my wallet is going to be?

 

Only had this happen once but I recycled the A/C system by turning it off completely and then hitting the AUTO temp button and it started blowing cold again.

 

just tried the AC Soft reset procedure. It set my outside temp to around 112, it's slowly drifiting down to the actual temp (it was at 99 when I turned the car off). During the slow decrease of the outside temp, the AC kept blowing hot air, however.

 

You accidentally unplugged the temp sensor for the vents inside your dash somewhere. I had this happen, dealer charged me 5 bucks to plug it back in. It was always hot unless it was set to 60, then it was cold. If your problem is the same then temp sensor unplugged.

 

The problem you are describing doesn't sound like the sensor-unplugged problem. What it does sound like is a known control software bug in the auto climate system. Mine occasionally does the same thing - i.e., the external temp display will stick and not indicate a correct reading. This seems to happen to me mostly when outside temps are in the 60-70deg range. The problem will eventually correct itself, and I've found that turning on the A/C can help. To correct it immediately, you can perform the software reset procedure (as you did), but the problem can return sometimes. Also, I believe this bug is related to the 'hot air' problem that so many of us experience during mild temp weather (again, 60-75 deg), when you shouldn't need A/C!