WTF ,driving home today and POOF!!!! the radiator hose that connects to the engine block(top one) just blew up.....how freakin' embarrasing...everyone was looking at me....if its not one thing its another with my car this year....I just replaced the hose, started to drive and within 15 min. the thermostat just jumped to the red zone, good thing I was not far from home. Anyways, my neighbor told me that since the top hose is hot and the bottom one was cool that means the water is not draining to the lower one and it may be a thermostat/valve problem with the sensor or something...my qusetion is where is this such sensor and will it be hard to replace??? please help.......1998 3.8L automatic
not sure about the whole senosr thing, but is your radiatior clean or does it have a bunch of rust and stuff in it.if it is dirty i recommnd either having a chemical flush or simply flushing it with a a hose.
There are 2 sensors and not hard to get to. I'll have to get back under the hood of mine and look where they are at. I changed both of mine recently, and my gauge straightened out. Now my gauge is acting strange again. It quit for a few weeks. The gauge heads for hot, and I get no heat. The gauge drops back down to normal then I get heat in the passenger compartment. I've been too busy at work to try & figure out what is going on. I just parked my stang for now. I'm most likely going after the thermostat & water pump next. I don't have plans to walk home any time soon.
Okay 2 sensors - Look at the thermostat housing. Up to the the right slightly is one. There is a junction housing screwed in above the thermostat that it is on. The other sensor is at the right hand corner of the coil pack between it and the cover for the fuel injection housing. (sorry don't know the proper term to call that.) I'm an old fashioned carb/intake kind of person. I haven't had to work on my 96 much. I've done more work on the husband's 93 vert.
