1997 Other Saturn Models Excessive Heat

Remove the ect. Or engine coolant temperature sensor. My bet is that it is cracked. This have a notorious problem for going bad. It's worth the 10 bucks to replace it. Obviously this may not be the problem, but after pulling the codes, that is the first thing I would look at.

It would be good to pull the codes from the computer to troubleshoot.

Not likely. The cel comes on when there is something ahtat is affecting the emission systems.

Low coolant is certainly a cause for concern as there is a bigger problem somewhere.

I have found that quite a few strange problems happen with the ect going bad. One such example is that it will prevent the evaporative monitor (self-test) from running because it thinks that the syetem is in a postion that it doesn't meet the criteria to allow it to run.

Having said that, you may have a thermostat problem.

I have seen it cause misfires or a very slow warm up that can set the cel on.

Need to pull codes to start.