95 Chrysler Cirrus- Overheating, Limp mode

My chrysler cirrus has been overheating and i’ve had to add alot of
coolant lately. The overheating is manageable as long as you are
driving but once you come to a stop it becomes a problem. Yesterday on
my way home from class I suddenly couldnt go past 2nd gear. From what
I’ve read from other posts this seems to be "limp mode". When I
drove it this morning, I could get into 3rd gear with no problems
whatsoever until it began to overheat. So it seems that these 2
problems may be related. I discovered that the radiator fans were not
kicking on so I replaced the coolant temperature sensor from my old
pontiac just to see if that was the problem and sure enough they began
to work. Thinking that this may have solved the entire problem, i was
going to take it for a test drive but before I left my driveway the
temperature gauge was maxed out already! I opened the hood and the
engine was not hot at all! so i take it for a short drive and the
transmission was working fine but the temp gauge would not go down so
i quickly returned home. I have really dont know where to go from
here...bad water pump? thermostat? simply a bad radiator cap????
Before I cluelessly bring it into the shop, i’d like to get some
opinions.
Thanks

 

Sounds to me like the Pontiac temp sensor is not the same resistance as the
Cirrus. If that is the case, your gauge won't work right. Sorry for the
bad news. My T&C has a limp mode too...won't go out of 1st or 2nd in some
situations. But if you turn off the key and start it up again, it goes
away. Of course, it's kinda hard to do that in traffic, so you PROBABLY
SHOULD pull over to do it. Good Luck.

John

 

Pull the wire of the Pontiac's temp sensor and see if your temp gauge
goes back down to cold. Chances are you replaced the wrong sender
with the wrong type sender.

Steve B.