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Hey all, I was out on the Spyder today and it was well below 40 degrees. The outside air temp read 46 degrees, and after a quick phone check, the actual air temp was 36 degrees. Does anyone know how accurate these things are and is there a way to calibrate it??
The position of the ambient air temp sensor is such that they all read 6-7 degrees above the actual air temperature.
Wifes 16 F3T and my 15 RT are always within a degree of each other when moving down the highway. Just subtract 6-7 degrees as per your preference.
Ahh this has been beat to death. The spyder comes with the sensor tied to the frame.Or it used to anyway. The assembly tech is supposed to move it to somewhere in the air intake when he assembles it. I don't remember exactly where. It is not clear if the thing is supposed to measure outside air temp or the temp of the air going through the engine air intake. Some say it feeds the info to the cpu and other say no. Take your pick.
Ours showed 66 today when it was 59/60. The six degrees subtraction sounds about right.
Hey....what do you expect from BRP for $30K????? :roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack:
^^^ That's first bit's certainly true, Beau, many of the sensors never get moved when the tech's do the Spyder's delivery assembly, but that temp sensor has NO CHANCE of ever telling you what the 'ambient' or 'outside air' temp is! :shocked: Wherever it ends up, it's invariably well under the tupperware and right in amongst any heat that's generated from the sun beating down on that, and it's also gonna be sitting smack in all the heat radiating and rising from the engine once you fire that up, even if there might be a bit of air flow around it once you start moving!! :p
Which means that even if someone once thought it might tell the ryder something else, the ONLY temperature that sensor is reading & reporting is at best (or is it worst?) the 'under body & on top of engine' temperature... a reading that will be fairly close to the intake air temp, even if it might not actually be the temp reading that's being used by the ECU to control the injection system & tune! :banghead:
So the temperature reading on the dash display is almost always going to be at least 'a tad' higher than ambient (didja like the way I used that really specific scientific term, hey?) unless maybe you are reading it before starting the engine for the very first time in 3 months after leaving the Spyder in a shaded & covered location all winter where no sunlight or external warming can reach the machine! And once you start ryding along the road on a surface that's had any sun warmth on it for a while, the displayed temp could even rise a bit due to any radiated/reflected heat rising from the road surface.... So the reality is, that temp display isn't going to be too great for anything except maybe a ccomparison with the temp during whatever ryding you did yesterday or whatever you do next year! In fact, a needle dial labelled 'Ryder Comfort Temp' with blue, yellow, & red segments would've likely conveyed just as much 'truly useful' info, and probably wouldn't have caused anywhere near the discussion the invariably 'wrong' digital readout does! :gaah:
I agree. It is the location that is the problem, not the sensor. It was extremely common on early Spyders that the assembly process ignored the sensor zip tied to the frame for transport, simply leaving it where it was. It is supposed to measure ambient air temperature and, as I understand it, feeds this important information to the ECU. It would make sense. I've always suspected that this may be some of the reason the 998 typically runs lean.
I'll have to do a look see on my RT and find out where the sensor ended up being mounted. Mines actually pretty accurate, it's the clock that sucks.
The location of the temp sensor is close to the air intake for the stock airbox. The sensor is accurate but only for the location it is in. It picks up heat from the road as well as body panels. There is a code from this sensor, aside from the on dash reading, that indicates temp to high in regards to the air flowing to the airbox. :thumbup:
So, if the air temp sensor is there to supply info to the ECU, why did they place a readout on the dash for the operator to see? About a useful as a rain gauge I guess.
Reference one could guess. Much like the speedo and the clock. They are close and give you an idea...:ohyea:Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogs
Thank you all for your replies!!! Being new to the Spyder, I was unaware this was a long standing issue. I’ll just do the math instead of trying to relocate the sensor! Haha!!!
The sensor is called the AAPTS, ambient air pressure temperature sensor. It's located on the top side of the right air duct. The challenge for the designers was to locate it so it could not only accurately (?) measure the the temp of the air passing through the duct and to the engine air intake but also static air pressure. The sensor provides two different signals to the ECM. If you drop the sensor closer to, or into, the air stream you can get a truer temp reading. But putting it into the air stream can cause the air flow to back up a little bit and give a higher than correct air pressure reading. I think I cut a larger hole in the duct to get more air flow past the sensor so I have a reasonably accurate temp reading. But I don't know how much I may have affected the pressure reading, i.e., increasing the apparent pressure. That may be one reason my gas mileage seems to always be lower than most everyone else here on the board.
If the temp goes above 120°F the bike will go into limp mode. You can get that kind of temp if the ambient air is above 100 and the Spyder is sitting out in the hot sun. It happened to me once but a couple of miles or so provided enough cool down of the sensor that the limp mode went away.
With various models and various changes over the years, I believe the later years have the sensor hard mounted from oem, while possibly earlier or other models than the original posts may need to be completed during dealer assembly.
Believe my temp sensor is mounted on the frame by the frunk switch on my R T.
Yep, I understand BRP also assembles airplanes. Kind'a scary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chupaca
Not really the case. Aircraft and trains are built by Bombardier, the forerunner company of snowmobile fame. In 2003 Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) was spun off into its own company. There is no connection between the design and manufacture of Spyders and Bombardier aircraft.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogs