ok i know how to replace it, but i have noticed my cooling fans are not working at all even with the ac on. my question is this. with the outside temp reading at 170' since i bought the car a few weeks ago (and who knows how long before that) could that have kept the air conditioner on without knowing it was on at all.

on the climate control display does it say ac when its on or not. iguess im really confused. all that i know is that my outside temp reads 170' and that my cooling fans are not working, i am contantly running 220+ in the winter in minnesota.
please help???

Either you have a bad temp guage (or two) or you need to get a 180* t-stat in right now.

Cooler thermostats do not cure overheating problems.

Look deeper into the problem. First of all, jump around the fuse box and see if you can get the fans to run directly off the battery (You DID check the fuses, right?)

Next, see if the radiator is blocked in some way by debris. Blow out the fins with a hose.

If the car is not using coolant, the problem usually results from air flow around the radiator. If it is internal, removing the radiator and having it boiled out might be in order.

If it IS using coolant, a blown head gasket is probably the problem, not counting, of course, the upper manifold failure which seems to be a common complaint here.

i dont think i asked my question right.
my climate control ambient air temp is at 170' at all times.
i was wondering if while my outside temp censor thinks its 170' outside, is my ac running inside intern turning both of my fans on full speed??
i dont know how long the outside air temp censor has been bad because i have only had the car a few weeks.
what i do know is that niether of my fans work now (i checked all of the fuses, i dont know whitch relays to check since the chart on the bottom of my max fuse center is long gone) and my temp is kind of high but i am not loosing any coolant.
if that helps.

My ambient temp sensor was faulty too. The only thing it seemes to affect was the temp of the air from the climate control. At 90* setting, the air output was very hot but at 85* the air was cool. I didn't notice any other malfunctions. The cooling fans worked normally. There was a thread a while back that mentioned that the ambient temp sensor also controls start-up idle. Although this came from a very reputable source, I still scratch my head with it because vehicles that do not have the ECC do not have the ambient temp sensor.

The sensor cost less than $20 and is a 0 beer job. Very simple.

Your cooling fans are controled by the ECT sensor, ECM and relays. Knowing what year your car is will enable several more pairs of eyes to look at wiring diagrams.

"and is a 0 beer job."