Sorry, if I'm not using the right terminology. I was driving along and the check engine light came on. I have not filled up the tank in 4 days, the gas cap seems fine. When I finally made it home the fan in the front of car ran for an additional 5 minutes after the car was turned off. Not the fan on the inside of the car providing heat/ air conditioning. I was busy looking through the manual to try and find out what the fan was and how to disconnect it (I was unsuccessful).

Tonight is the first cold night we've had this season (30s) - could that have something to do with it? I've never heard the fan run like this after the car has been shut off. Is it okay to drive - until I can get it into the dealer?
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like maybe the thermostat broke or the coolant temp sensor is bad.
You should be fine just keep an eye on the Temp guage.

 

Here's an FYI to everyone who has had this problem. I have read countless posts and followed much useful advice. I changed the temp sensor, the fan control relay, the maf sensor and the fan ran continuously. I finally found that none of these parts had been bad. When changing the temp sensor, I failed to notice the tremendous amount of corrosion inside the positive terminal of the sensor connector. Cleaned this, put dielectric grease on it and it sured the hard starting, the fan running and the lack of boost from the turbo. $250 in un-needed parts and several hour in wasted labor all because of corrosion in a connector. Always check the simple things first! Apparently a bad signal from the temp sensor causes multiple problems such as hard starting, fan override that forces the fan to stay on in 'safety mode' and it also tells the ecm to kill the turbo boost. Hope this helps.