Saturn Repair: over heating, coolant tank, coolant system

Question
I have a problem that somwhat troubles me. I know that my car is overheating. It is averaging about 30 to 40 degrees outside here in Nashville and the car will run for a while and not get hot. Then, sudddenly it will start overheating. I know that my electric fan will not work, and I am in the process of replacing it. Yet, my main question is, when the car gets too hot, it will choke and die. It will imediately start up again, but in a minute or two it will die again. Is this just a safety feature, or do I have a fuel pump problem I should worry about? ~there was also a funny whineing noise comming from just under the back seat as it was overheating. Thanks for your help.  

Answer
Hello Curtis,
First, thanks for allowing me to help uout.  I will do my best.
This is a tough one as it could ber several different things. I do know, from experience, that the over heating problem is often the fault of the Plastic Coolant tank cap.  The black plastic cap fails quite easily and causes the coolant system to lose pressure and cause overheating.  It is only about $10-$15 to replace from an autoparts store.  It could also be the thermostat.  It is in an odd place on the Saturn engines...from the front of the car, it is located under a radiator hose fitting that gos into the engine black, just to the right of the air compressor.  You have to drain the coolant from the petcock on the bottom of the radiator and remove that hose and the fitting to get to it.  It sounds like it could be the culprit, as well.  The sensors tell the computer that it has overheated and tell the engine to stop (in a nut shell...it is really much more complicated than that).  Try the Plastic cap first as it needsto be replaced anyway.  Then, if the problem persists, replace the thermostat.
If those two don't fix it...then I am out of suggestions.
It should be oneof those two.
I wish you all the best of luck and success with it.  Have a happy Holiday.
Sincerely,
Greg Moore
P.S.  Please feel free to leave any comments about me with All Experts.com website for others to know how I did. Thanks