Temp guage goes up and check engine light comes on

Mine did it too.... The problem is the Engine Power Relay.

The Engine Power Relay is in the relay box in the engine compartment. Aftermarket relay is cheap, but the original Ssangyong part will last many years longer.

Hope this helps.

dose it run hot with ac on or open hiway?

I would supect you actually have two problems going on here. First off it sounds like your guage is reading inaccuratly. When it is reading at one quarter it probably should be at the half way point. This is the normal operating range. The most likely cause is the temp sensor for the guage. When you pull a trailer and engine gets under a load the tempature sounds like its going up too high. Your engine light comes on because it uses a different sensor and is registering accurate tempature. I would start by comparing actual tempature of engine with what the guage reads, this can be done with a scanner or a heat gun pointed at the thermostat housing. I believe you will find a faulty sensor or possibly an outside chance of a bad guage.(but doubt it!)Once that is straightned out you will have to look at why is the engine getting too warm under load. I would start with radiator flow,A ristricted radiator either internally or externally will cause this. Good luck!

You more than likely have a thermostat that is stuck open. When this is the case with the computerized vehicles today the computer tells your engine that it is still cold and dumps more fuel to the engine. When this happens the extra fuel goes through your exhaust and uaually makes the check engine light come on as you have O2 sensors that register this flow. Replace the thermostat, disconnect the negative side of your battery for 5 minutes and re-connect. If this has been going on for a while the light may come back on. You may have to drive it for a while until it clears all the excess fuel out of the system then do the battery thing again. You probably have been getting poor gas mileage as well. Hope this helped. Just make sure that the engine light does not flash as this is a sign of major problems and you should not drive it if it flashes

Usually one of the head gaskets are bad normally the drivers side from what I have seen, typical problem, i have been down that road also

check your coolant level. half way on the guage is normal

Check the mounting of the fuses for the concerned instruments they maybe loosely installed.

replace the temp sending unit on the engine first

change the themostat when you remove the old themostat you should see it stuck in the open postion . before i install the new one i fill the the block with coolant install the new stat run the mtr and heater core until hot iwould also replace the cap

My mechanic in our town did a quick computer check. Car computer indicated a low level of antifreeze, he topped it up, cleared all messages off the car computer and said to watch the the heat guage for any further irregularities. I'll keep an eye on it, love the car, great mileage fun to drive.