[clreed]

I have a 95 v6 mustang and it's giving me a ton of problems. First of all I was driving back from school and I noticed it was starting to run bad and the heat died. I pulled over and saw smoke coming from the engine compartment. I pretty must just ran my engine out of coolant. I waited till it cooled down and put water in so I could get it home. It was at this point I figured out that my temp gauge stays in an upright position and doesn't move no matter what. Well I figured that the reason why my engine wasn't getting coolant was because the thermostat was closed. I replaced that and it seamed to work fine. A couple days went by and I had no heat again. I was checking around and noticed a leak near the bottom of the water pump. I replaced that. Now my car wont heat up at all. When I run it for about five to ten minutes smoke started to build up from the radiator. My fan is not coming on. The fan will come on though if I turn the AC on. I need some help. My temp gauge is not working and stuck in an upright position, so I can't tell when or if my car is over heating. I have no check engine lights on. If anyone has any ideas please send them my way.

[mmtobias]

I think the first thing that i would do is fix the temp gauge problem. I have had problems with my temp gauge before so i installed an aftermarket live temp gauge (but don't buy the cheap no name ones, they're not very accurate!). It is important that you are able to see if the car is over heating because that can cause serious damage!! usually when you don't get heat it is because of a lack of coolant or an air bubble. I would start by bleeding the cooling system to make sure all air bubbles are out. This is probably the easiest and cheapest thing to start with, hopefully this works.

[232-K7]

more than likely air bubbles in the cooling system, im thinking maybe that since your gauge always reads cold that the computer isnt telling the fan to turn on??? i'd ask someone else if thats true. also, check your radiator seems for any leakage, good chance your radiator's the culprit.

[232-K7]

also possible your ECT sensor is failing, if you have a tuner/ obd2 scanner, if not autozone might be able to hook one up to your car and read your ECT readings. good luck.