so i changed my timming belt water pump and all that a few months ago ... however i believe even before i started noticing that the car temp gauge would be at below 200 mark and at times go to 200 mark and that when i turned it off and then returned to the car shortly after to turn back on the gauge would be a bit above 200 mark and then quickly ( less than 30 sec) after turning on would return to normal.

Is this behavior normal? Is there a bad cap(ressure) , thermostat or somehting wiht the new water pump?

 

Hmm. Since you went to the trouble of replacing the water pump I would go ahead and replace the thermostat and radiator cap if not changed recently. Is the fan kicking in when the car is hot or a/c running? I would also look at the coolant temp. sensing switch in case you are just getting a bad reading on the gauge. don't assume it is and burn the motor. When you drained the coolant to do the water pump did you flush the engine and radiator fins?(not just drain).

 

Dont you need to replace colant to change thermostat...I might leave that as the lastresort since i just changed coolant when changing water pump....butihave not replaced thermo or cap yet.....no I did not take a hose and flush since I have had to replace coolant quite a bit the last two years. ....I replaced the radiator a year ago when I installed ac on my base model ...maybe ill change rad cap furst

 

you never used radiator sealer or leak seal have you? Prob just a $5 thermostat & air in the system