Saturn cooling problem

Could be the fan motor itself too. They're a wear item (due to the brushes in them).

Coolant temperature sensors seem to be a common failure item on the Saturn S-cars..

Does the light stay on or does it blink? You may just have low coolant......

On 98s the gauge and the computer pull data off the same sensor, so if the sensor is telling the computer the engine is too hot, the gauge should also show it......

After reading another post about the fan turning on when the a/c was also turned on, I thought I'd give it a try. Sure enough the cooling fan kicked in. My wife drove it to work & had the a/c on & off on her way (only 20 min.) She told the light never came on at all. Now I know the fan works. So it looks like I'll be shopping for a sensor. Do I have to get this at a dealer?

Thanks

I'd buy the sensor itself at the dealer.

The dealers have the brass replacement sensors. I've heard that aftermarket shops (NAPA et. al.) still have the plastic.

It's relatively cheap.

Oh, you might want to pick up the connector at the dealer and replace it while you're at it. When the sensors fail, they often leak which corrodes the connector.

And, it's VERY hard to see the connector damage.

The temp light will blink, but the gauge barely moved. The coolant reservoir would emit steam, and would be low on coolant. I'll refill w/coolant, the light will stay off for about 1/2 hour, then start blinking again. The steam would escape, and the process starts again.

Today because the a/c was turned on intermittantly (sp?), the fan started up and cooled the engine. But only when the a/c was turned on.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.comNHRA (BANDIT2941) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com:

Something else to check - did the needle creep up to 12 o'clock, or did it start out at that position the moment the car was started? This position, along with the coolant light, is used to indicate a sensor problem.

Then you must not have been paying attention to me :)

I got mine from NAPA, it was 2 years ago now, and it was the new brass style. Total price was around $11.........

Temp light blinking indicates low coolant........

Wife says it did creep up to 12 o'clock 2 days ago. Sorry. I thought it didn't.

If you're cute like me, unplug the clutch connector on the compressor. That way you get the fan on but the compresor won't kick in - this giving you a manually controlled fan to cool the car off, without the a/c load (considerable)

Or you can just switch the AC on then right back off again, as once you turn the fan on it stays on until its down to the 1/4 mark.

"Robert Hancock" wrote in inimitable style:

And it's important to replace them.

I ran my SL2 for thousands of miles and it never budged off the 1/4 mark, then I noticed a boil over! There was no warning or indication of a cracked bulb, and one can only guess how hot the engine got during the thousands of miles and I never noticed (the SES light would come on however).

The Saturn does not take heat that well either. I live in an area where it can get in triple digits for long stretches, and the transmission acts up routinely. I have to avoid running the car on hot summer days for fear that the A/T won't go into the higher gear esp. during stop-n-go driving.

I also figured out that unless I run the A/C constantly, the engine fan won't cool the engine off: I once did a test where the temp got up the 1/2 way mark, then kicked on the A/C blower and notice it come back down to near to the 1/4 mark, never reaching it though. I am not sure if this is any way to engineer a cooling system, is it?? I think temperature fluctuations in the engine shorten its life immeasurably.

The engine cooling fan is usually designed to come on just before the yellow or red line on the gauge. Those temperatures really should not do the engine any harm. If the cooling fan can't keep the temperature out of the red zone with the A/C off after it does come on, then it probably wouldn't have with the fan running from the start anyway, and something else is wrong.

Actually, the Saturn S-series has an excellent cooling system (if properly maintained) and will handle triple digit temperatures with no problems. If you have to avoid using your car on hot days something is wrong with it.

All running the A/C does is add more heat to the cooling system. If the same fan system cools your engine adequately with the A/C on, then it will cool it even better with the A/C off.

You probably have a malfunctioning coolant sensor that signals the fans to turn on when the A/C is off. You need to get that fixed rather than make vague generalizations about "Saturns not taking heat well".

Alan King

Thoughts:

Common failures:

1) Coolant Temperature Sensor. 2) Radiator Fan (they ARE wear items - the DC motor on the radiator fan in the Saturn uses brushes that simply wear out after a while). 3) Missing front dam - if it's missing, air flow is all wrong.

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