SS 2Grand

I'm out driving at lunch today in heavy rain and out of nowhere the engine coolant gauge starts dipping all the way down to zero and then back up to normal several times in a row upon hard acceleration. When this was happening, the engine was sputtering badly until it finally "caught" itself and accelerated normally.

I pulled into the parking lot at work after lunch and the engine coolant gauge dropped all the way down past zero and stayed there...like the gas gauge normally does after you turn the car off, only my car was still running. All other gauges were normal, the oil pressure, voltage, etc.

I turned the car off for a few minutes and re-started it and the coolant gauge didn't budge. It's almost as if the gauge itself is toast, but I was having acceleration problems when it was working and bouncing up and down, so I think something is not right?

It's funny that this happened when it was raining. I think my car hates water. I normally never drive in the rain since my SS is not my DD. Several times when I've had to take my car to a car wash, it started sputtering and idleing poorly after I'd gone through the car wash as if something was getting wet and causing my engine to run poorly. It always goes away when seemingly the car dries out.

Anyway, sorry for the length, but I have no idea what this could be?

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Sounds like the car was almost dying and the gauges all went down due from lack of power.

SS 2Grand

Well, it did feel like the car was dying, but the engine coolant gauge was the only gauge that went down...all the others stayed normal.

I have FTRA, I didn't go through any large puddles, but maybe I needed to block it off? It did rain fairly hard here in Chicago today...just kind of a weird coincidence with the rain and the car wash thing? Something about the water. I should be able to drive in rain though! <img border="0" alt="[Banging Head]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_banghead.gif" />

Gangly

check the engine coolant temperature connection on the side of the block, i have bumped mine several times and broken it a few times also while fooling around with headers and exhaust and what not. if its broken or damaged, it will rise and drop like crazy just as you described. i replace them and the temp quauge instantly works properly again. i dont believe the car trying to stall has anything to do with your temp gauge dropping like that. there is no relationship between a temp quage and the idle of a vehicle, or in better words, i dont know of any way that a malfunctioning temp gauge will cause a car to idle poorly or versa(sp?).

<small>[ October 04, 2002, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: TAraysr ]</small>