The sensor itself is right behind the grill opening and there is nothing in front of or around it that could produce the heat in this manner. But I'll try the canned air test to see if it responds.

Regarding the reading, I know on the E38/E39/E46, when the sensor becomes physically damaged (i.e. tip broken off or torn from wireing) it reads -40* and this one is fully intact from what I can see. I've been scouring the internet and found a few references to the 122* issue and some have been just the sensor while others have been wiring or another issue entirely.

Guess I'm taking the bumper panel off this weekend to replace the sensor and go from there. Hey Ard, you want to come down the hill to the West Valley and pull a bumper panel with me? ;)

Still can't find sensor on our X5 :(
 

Hi, new to the forum. Novice do-it-yourself here trying to help my dad fix this ambient temp sensor thing. Anyhow my dad recently bought a used 2007 X5 3.0si and much like everyone on this thread had a temp reading of -40 degrees. And like some here, I'm having a hard time finding where the heck this thing is located at. Over the weekend we took out the driver’s side wheel well / liner (not sure if that’s the correct name) with the hope of easily spotting this thing, with no success. I took a couple of pictures … hoping someone could shed some light for me. Pictures are all from the driver's side.

I think it is in the duct from the grill to the left front wheel well. I think you need to remove the inner wheel arch to see it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You're looking in the wrong area. You need to remove the front bumper to get to it. If you look through the bottom grill under then left upper grill in the hood you can see the tip sticking down. There is no way to get to it without removing the bumper.

I hit a snow bank once and packed the duct full of snow. My ambivert tempo was struck at 28F for quite a while. I tried to get to the sensor and like mentioned can't get to it but I thought I saw you can get to it by removing inner wheel well which should be easier than the bumper. Looking on YouTube I can only find the procedure for sedans

Maybe on the E53, but on the E70 you have to remove the bumper cover. The connection end of the sensor is covered by the bumper and you cannot get it out without removal. Oh and it isn't in the brake cooling duct, it is in the grill opening just below the bumper. As circled in the attached picture.

Thanks all, very much appreciated! I'm gonna give a shot over the weekend... we'll see how it goes :)