Coolant level/Getting hot...

Well ive noticed something... I drove around today when it was like 85 degrees and my temp guage read 175-180 degrees and stayed there and when i would stop at a light it would creep up to 210 and then back down to 180. All fine. Well tonight i drove not even as far and it was like 74 degrees and cool and it was staying right at 210 the entire time. it seems to do this sometimes. and was wondering if i needed more antifreeze/water in my coolant bottle because its low but its been like that since i replaced my water pump almost 6 months ago.

Mine does something similar sometimes, and has for awhile now and I figure out that it is actually the gauge that is faulty and needs replaced, check your gauge, they wear out.
:cheers:

Sometimes i find that my auxillary electric fan takes it's sweet time firing up, allowing it to idle at around the 210 mark (btw i have a new radiator and bottle). If yours does go back down, i wouldn't worry too much about it. However if steep hills make it go UP from 210, i'd look into the t-stat, the aux. fan and maybe try a coolant flush. A good 50/50 mix should be ok, but I'm no expert. .

Do you have the open or closed system?

The 1st thing to do is too service coolant reservour to the proper level when the system is cool and the fluid is contracted.

When the cooling system is COOL, if you have an open system, open the pressure cap on the radiator and check the fluid level in the radiator. The coolant should be at the very tippy top of the radiator, no air in there what-so-ever. If there is some space, air, in the radiator, your coolant recovery system is NOT working. The most likely culprit is the valve in the pressure cap on the system.

When the vehicle is warmed up, check the upper radiator hose, it should be hard with 13-18PSI of pressure behind it, if it is soft and squishy, like no pressure is in the system, then you need a new pressure cap or you have a leak in the system. The cooling system unable to hold pressure can cause the temp to spike up suddenly at unusual times.

Finally check the fans, the thermal clutch on the engine driven fan wear out after a couple of years, one of the most common malfunctions is the switch over when it gets warm, the fan clutch, instead of increasing resistance and driving more air, actually slips even more when hot and moves less air after the bymetal spring, heated up, switch's the fan over.

Observe the electric aux fan, make sure it comes on when it should. If it does NOT, then trouble shoot and see if its the fan, sensor, relay, wiring, etc.