Lincoln/Mercury Repair: cooling system, mercury mystique, electronic thermostat

Question
I have a 1996 Mercury Mystique, I was sitting at a local fastfood drive through and my car was getting hot. It was on the verge of overheating, I heard a loud pop under the hood and then I saw steem coming from the driver side tire well, the temp. gauge was going down so I tought no big deal then I started to hear a loud rattle come from under the hood, like I was low on oil. Do you have any suggestions what happened and how much it would cost to repair?

Answer
Wow Mark! You blew a radiator hose. The knocking is your engine! Likely your cooling fan is not working, it's electric and thermostatically controlled. The temp gauge went down because it measures coolent tempeture, you don't have any in your radiator so it can't see the temp. DO NOT DRIVE THIS CAR for risk of cause further engine damage. Have it towed to a garage and have them replace the blown hose. Then test the fan and fan switch to make sure it's coming on. If it is not coming on, I suggest replacing the electronic thermostat that controls the electric fan.