Today going to work i noticed, as simple as sitting at street lights for 3 minutesor so, that my gague would show my engine heating to my eye i can see it moving up as i sitt at the light, when i start moving the gauge goes down....never use to do this...any ides, prolly as simple as a thermostat? or as bad as a blown gasket? any sugguest is great appreciated...... I would also like to add that when this does happen like leting my car run for 5-10 mins it goes half way on the gauge and some times it smokes like a bitch..is this cuz its so hot, its just buring the oil like no tommorro, or do i have real bad internal problems?Edited by: radar2k

There is definetly a bad cooling problem here. I doubt its the termostat because your getting smoke. Now my first question is, are you noticing a loss of coolant at all. If so, how much?. Have you checked the engine bay while the car is running to see if you can notice anything as to where the smoke is comming from. What i will say is the reason the guage goes down once you start moving is there is then more air going into the radiator, cooling it alittle better. I had symptoms similiar to this last week and it turned out to be the water pump. But before i can figure it out i really need alittle more info.

Also any smoke from the exhaust?Edited by: TheEngineer

Yea the smoke is <b>only</b> coming from the exhaust but after the car has been sitting, (warming up, but to much). Didnt notice the coolant fluid being low, everytime i check the coolant it seems to be at a good level. and since i bought the car never had to put coolant in it.. but i will check to see if it has changed since i last looked.

Update.....Not to sure what normal operating temperature is for my 99sc2 saturn...i''ve noticed lately it is getting to the half way mark on the gauge is this ok? or should the gauge stay at a consint temp..usally 1/4?? I dont have numbers on my gauge only a (C,H) and the manuale says nothing about this. any ideas what the gauge should read at all times?

A little below half tick is pretty normal with a brass ECTS (replacement) installed. Replace ECTS and connector if you have not done so already.

Initially I was leaning towards water pump based on temp gauge behavior, but this would not account for smoke out the tailpipe.... so....

As for smoke out the tailpipe - is it sweet smelling white smoke (indicates coolant getting into the combustion chambers) or is it blue/black (indicates oil burning in the cylinders)?

It doesn''''t take a lot of coolant to produce a good bit of white smoke when it burns...

I would suspect something more like a marginal head gasket or a slightly warped head- check compression.





Edited by: derf

Around half way or just above is normal. And on a warm day its normal to see the needle creep up until the fan turns on.