Car question.

This morning, I turned my car on for 10 minutes, as usual. The temperature dial reached 190 (normal).

Then, as I was driving to work, the temp. started to go down. I freaked, but I was able to make it to work.

This has never happened before. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

Help! I don't want to get stuck on the 135.

Nancy

I went outside with a co-worker and checked everything. The car has anti-freeze, oil and window washer fluid.

As long as your engine is on the temperature should remain warm/hot depending on how you look at it. You might have a faulty sensor.

Did your car do anything else unusual... make noises, run rough or seem to loose power (dimmed lights or sound like it was 'weak' - my '93 Jeep when I don't let her warm up enough in the morning will actually 'fade' when I wait for red lights... the lights dim and the engine gets quiter than usual. ) while this happened?

Nope, nothing else happened. It was normal, except the temp. thingy. My mechanic said the same thing: my sensor must be going nuts.

It sounds like your cooling fan is not engaging for some reason - could be as simple as a bad fuse or you might need to replace the module but that should be less than $100.

When your car runs, the engine heats up and the cooling system engages. When your car is standing still, the fan engages to blow air over the radiator and thus remove heat from the coolant and engine.

When you started driving, the natural draft of air through the grill as the car was moving did the same thing the cooling fan does.

As long as you keep moving you're fine but you should get it fixed soon. If you get in traffic and the temp starts to go up, put the heat on full blast (open the windows if you have to) and you will buy some time before overheating.

This happened to my car back in the day - that's how I know!