Car just died on the highway out of the blue, temp gauge stuck at hot

[njintau_fsd]

Hi all:

I have a 03 Spicy MSP and recently I replaced the turbo mani with a steedspeed and did an oil change. So today, while I was on the highway, the car just stopped responding and the wideband showed it lean out to around 21.1 which is as high as it will go. I managed to pull over to the side of the road and tried starting it but it wouldn't start, all it did was turn over. Here are the weird parts here:
1) While I was slowing down, even though the speedo and tach were at zero, I could still hear the engine run plus I still had power steering.
2) Even after 2 1/2 hours, the temp gauge is still stuck at hot, I blasted the heater to see if the air was still coming out hot and it wasn't.
3) I checked for any blown pipes or any other vacuum leak sources and so far the only thing I could find was the metal pipe going from the exhaust mani to the EGR was loose at the EGR but it was still threaded on.
4) Thinking it might have been a blown head gasket, I checked the oil dipstick if there was any coolant and checked for steam or any slimy residue. All checked out fine.
5)The car had a CEL for a few days even though there was no code ( the Autozone reader couldn't complete the connection to the ECU.)

What do you guys think is the problem? Blown head gasket? Electrical problem maybe? Could the temp sensor connector have shorted some how causing the ECU to cut the fuel as a fail safe? Could the ECU be at fault?

 

[njintau_fsd]

So I figured out what the problem was. Turned out the 10A fuse in the box marked "Engine" was blown. Replacing the fuse fixed the gauge cluster and the car fired right up. I guess now the question is why did it blow in the first place? The plastic case over the metal filament looked like it was melted so its not like the filament cracked due to engine vibration or something, it actually blew. Could there be a hidden electrical issue that might have caused this or is this just an old part failing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[njintau_fsd]

Welp, looks like I'm just talking to myself at this point but figured I'd put this out there for anyone else with a similar problem.

On Saturday, as I was on the same highway, the car died again at about the same location and yeah the same exact fuse was blown. After replacing it, I checked under the hood and found my problem. The slimfan I bought from Frozen Boost had partially melted (the fan housing) from the exhaust heat and I guess putting a heavy enough load (or just shorting) to blow my ECU fuse. Unplugged it and the cars been fine, even the CEL I had didn't come back. I guess the moral of the story is you get what you pay for. Hope this helps anyone out there with similar issues.

 

[hornsfan10609]

Sorry man I work weekends and haven't been on, but as soon as I read "temp gauge stuck on hot" I knew what the problem was. Glad you figured it out

 

[destineal]

Yep, we've all been there.