So I already talked to matt last night. But What happened is this:

My thermometer broke, I dunno which part. But for the last day or two it kept saying that the engine was always at its hottest even though it was just turned on and its freezing cold outide. And also for the last few days starting the car when it was warm was a problem. It always took 4 trys to start the car. On the first 3 trys, even if I gave it some gas to start it would start stall... But after that, when it started the car ran just fine. When the thermo was broken and saying it was hot, I had to drive home from a trip and nothing happened, no smoke or anything..

So last night I get in my car after work and drive to the light. It turns green. I have my clutch in and I let it out to go into gear. I hear this loud squeal and then the car stalls. I put the clutch back in and try to start. It starts and stalls. I put it into neutral and let my foot off the clutch. The car starts.... But this is the weird part... Now the whole way home if I put the clutch in, the RMPs would drop to 0 and the car would stall. So I either had to A) put it in neutral and let my foot off the clutch. B) Keep the car's RMPs up with the gas while the clutch is in....

So I get home. And I see smoke.... THe Radiator is sizzling and smoke is coming out of it (at least I am 90% sure it was this, however it was dark and hard to see)...

Matt said I needed a new Temp Sending Unit for the Temp Gauge which is cheap and easy to install... So Im gonna get that and hopefully that was my problem...

update on post #3

Thats shitty man. To bad you didnt catch it earlier. Hope everything works out and that is the only problem. Good luck

Update:

I checked the fluids, the radiator fluid is gone. Burned up, I don't know if its was from last night because it was sizzling last night. But there is no fluid, so I filled it up and tried to start. Kept the rpms around 1000 and it was making its tick tick tick sounds (normal sounds) but then it went SCREECH!!! and the engine died.

what could be wrong? should I try to start it again? or can I damage the engine forever trying to?

Could be a number of things... make sure your water pump hasnt shit the bed first.

The temp sensor hopefully will fix the temp guage.

the screech sounds like a wet fan belt to me, and i think is totally unrelated to the engine stalling at the same time.

I gotta assume you need to pull the plugs, check the timing on the distributor, and research if your car ever had the hot start recall.

Hey Matt, how how should I find out about the hot start recall? I know the first owner had taken really good care of the car, but the 2nd owner left it sitting for 2 years. So how can I find out?

alright, So is the temp sensor a single prong? because I ordered a part and it has two prongs, and it says Aux. Fan Sensor. I think they gave me the wrong part... And I lost the pictures that MAtt sent me of where the temp sensor is.

Stalling: check for vacuum leaks or fuel system problems. Extremely high heat may cause the warm up regulator to increase control pressure so much that the motor leans out and dies. Higher control pressure prohibits the air flow meter from raising as much by putting more pressure on top of the fuel dist. push rod, thus leaning out the mixture. I don't know if thats possible, just speculation based on how the system works.
Empty radiator/car overheating: check for coolant leaks or a blown head gasket. This doesn't explain why your temp gage read hot immediately after starting the car though.

Best case scenario: Water pump is leaking badly causing motor to overheat and the belt to slip and screech. This doesn't explain why the motor is stalling unless you happen to develop a vacuum leak at the same time, or unless you also have fuel system problems.
Worst case scenario: You have a coolant leak or a blown head gasket and have run the cooling system dry. Your temp gage is accurate, you've overheated the motor, possibly warped the head, and it either stalled because of the leaning out condition cause by an extremely hot WUR, or the motor seized, causing a screech.

The 2 prong aux cooling fan switch turns the fan on at a set temp. It threads into the side of the radiator below the battery. The temp sensor that operates the temp gage threads into coolant inlet neck at the front of the cylinder head, just in front of the first intake runner (they share a stud) and will have 1 wire.
Also, the thermo time switch will be next to it. It will have a brown plug. The thermo time switch acts as a ground for the cold start injector, only allowing the injector to fire if the motor is below a certain temp, and only for about 8 seconds. The way to tell if you have the hot start recall is look for an additional black wiring harness that plugs into the thermo time switch, cold start injector, and the grey engine wiring harness at the firewall, just below 2 electrical boxes, which it also plugs into.

ok, but that part I have. is it the wrong part for what I am trying to fix?

yeah the 2-prong auxiliary fan sensor is actually just a switch (that opens & closes depending on what temperature rating it is).

the part you need is a single-prong temperature sensor....which i believe is more of a variable resistor & relies on a good ground on the 'coolant divider'

you want this piece.

omg, I am by far the stupidest person on the face of the earth... I feel really dumb and really don't feel like saying what happened.... and Im so stupid I probibly damaged my car, but I thought hmm the sensor showed really hot readings it must be broken...

No....








Laugh now...





My radiator was out of coolant the whole time, I put some new in and it works like a charm....

But the thing I need to work on now is when my car is warm it takes 4 tryes to start. Each of the first three times the car stalls.

You already told us it was empty, which is why i suggested in a post above that you have far worse problems than a broken gage:Empty radiator/car overheating: check for coolant leaks or a blown head gasket.
Best case scenario: Water pump is leaking badly causing motor to overheat and the belt to slip and screech.
Worst case scenario: You have a coolant leak or a blown head gasket and have run the cooling system dry. Your temp gage is accurate, you've overheated the motor, possibly warped the head, and it either stalled because of the leaning out condition cause by an extremely hot WUR, or the motor seized, causing a screech. You may have done some serious damage, but you still need to figure out why your radiator was empty. Its not empty because it overheated, it overheated because its empty. The stalling while the engine is running could be from a number of causes, I would guess its related to overheating the motor as speculated in my post above. As for the hard warm starting, do you have the warm start recall? I hope everything works out for you man. Good luck.

well, I filled it up and it ran fine, everything looks alright. Temp reading is normal. I hope I didn't cause the worst damage I could, but the fluid is staying normal now. I guess I forgot to check it.

Are you still having troubles starting the car when it is warm? II hope it all works out and no large damage was caused.

yeah, I still have troubles. Well sorta, if I leave it for more than 30 minutes, but start it before the whole engine gets cold, then it has problems... But on the 4th key turn to try and start it, it works.

My car has recently started doing the same thing, I haven't had time to go through the fuel system to diagnose the problem. Here are some ideas for you to start looking at without going through the full system pressure test:
-Hot starting can be caused by incorrect warm control pressure or standing pressure loss to name a few
-If you have the hot start recall, make sure the its working. After motor is warm, pull cold start injector, pull ignition lead off of coil so motor doesn't start, have a friend crank the engine and watch for it to spray (preferably into a jar or something)
-leaks in the system cause pressure loss (while the pump is off) can occur at the WUR, system pressure regulator (plug on right front side of fuel distributor) and most commonly at the fuel pump check valve. Replace the fuel pump check valve (available at Bavauto.com for ~$13), if that doesn't fix it, take the WUR apart and clean it carefully and put it back together, and take the pressure regulator out, clean it and put it back together (be careful not to lose any washers, springs!!)
-Incorrect warm control pressure could be caused by a faulty WUR. Take it apart and clean it, put it back together.

Hope this helps..