Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - Will outside temperature shut down a refrigerator?

We have an extra refrigerator in our garage. Recently, and during a very cold spell, my wife noticed the freezer section was above freezing and the refrigerator section was too cold, in fact both sections were the same temperature. We called for service but the night before they were to come out, everything seemed to be working properly again i.e. the freezer was around zero and the refrigerator section was where it was supposed to be.... so we canceled the appointment. Coincidentially, the outside temp, and thus the temp in the garage had warmed up as well. Then two days later, we ran into the same problem. My wife also mentioned she noticed she didn't hear the compressor running when the temps were off and had noticed it running when it was working properly.. any suggestions? Worth fixing .. manufactured within 10 years.. thanks for reading...

Yes, the area around the refrigerator must be above a certain temperature. Don't know why, I just learned this from experience.

A refrigerator has a thermostat which is normally set around 40 degrees. Therefore if the garage temp goes below 40, the refrig won't run because the garage temp is satisfying the thermostat. One way to fool the thermostat is with a lighted electric bulb (say 40 watt) on and extension cord inside the refrigerator. That bit of heat requires the refrig to run to satisfy the thermostat and therefore keep the freezer cold as well.

Do you think this would cause both the freezer AND refrigerator sections to malfunction?

yes, and whirlpool, i think, actually makes an add on called a garage refrigerator adapter .