hi, ive had this problem a while and im not enjoying my camaro that much anymore , and im aldso not driving it much anymore because of this.
so heres my problem.

Whenever i drive my temp is usually a little below half the meter or sometimes half the meter. but as time passes lets say 7-12 min my temp starts going up and up untill it reaches almost red and then it goes down very fast down to half or sometimes less than half, i really dont understand how my engine can cooldown so fast, but i though i was the meter but when i drove it today after like 2 weeks the temp went to red and check gases light came on for like 1 sec (so im discarting the meter as a problem) and then the temp went down real fast to 1/4 of the meter.
i think it might be the pump but im not sure, also my air filter are very old and probly preatty dirty.
i have had the powersteering problem and i dunno where the coolant is leaking from causing my belt to get wet and making power steering go away temporaryly. has anyone ever had this problem???
i need a quick answer cuz my mom is leaving tomorow on her way to the us and i could get her to order me a part if i need to replace the pump or whatever. plz help me

is there anyway i could check my pump without taking it off? could this temp fluctuacions have anything to do with my pump?

(I live in Chile and we dont have camaro parts here so this is my only chance)

 

check for leaks in the cooling system, and fill the system and bleed the air out

the gauge going hot and dropping fast is a good indication of air in the cooling system, and the only way for that to happen after it has been operating fine, is from the coolant being low from a leak

 

When that happened to me, my water pump went very soon afterward.

 

Does it do it only when the car is sitting still?
Does it do it when its cruising over 40mph?
Have you recently changed your coolant?

When you say fast, do you mean like the needle jumps or does it smoothly go up and down fast?

 

Could it just be the fans kicking on? I know before I got my 160* tstat/tune my temp would get hot almost to the red before the fans kick on then as soon as the fans came on it would drop back down.

 

I did change all my coolant not long ago and replaced avery dam hose to forget about leaks, i bleed it like 1k times and its ok i guess i could try that again, but i still get the belt wet not often but it hapens last time was 2 weeks ago when i stopped driving the car untill today.
when i mean real fast , i really meant it went down smoothly but fairly fast i mean from 250 to 180 in 10sec or so.
should i then buy a pump??? how can i know if its going bad or not, i cant see tha dam whole of the pump and i guess it doesnt poor coolant all the time.

 

about the fans , im not sure i cant hear them with the exhaust while im driving , but my car is mainly stock , nothing changed on the compu so how could my fans be turning on late??

 

well, stock, the fans turn on at 220 for the low speed, and 235 for the high speed

did you put a new thermostat in?

 

hard question but preatty sure i havent.(i had a 91z and i think i put one on that one)
so if the leak is not coming from hoses it must be coming from the pump right?
i need to fix this problem or at least know what it is by tomorrow so i can order the stuff.

these are my symptoms:

Overheating and then going back down fairly fast all the time.
getting power steering off sometimes due to wet belt
some random boggin once in a while always when car is hot (passed 210)
making me crazy

the can its a 94 z28 m6 , opti only has 1k miles

 

have you checked the level of the coolant. it sounds like you are running low on coolant and the reason why the gauge changes so quickly is due to the water cycling. This same situation happened to me and the problem was a small leak in one of the hoses that i could only see when i did a pressure test. I would do a pressure test and see what the results are.

 

nice, ill check that but i changed my coolant not long a ago and i filled it up real good and bleed it to death so i dunno , i dont think im running low on coolant.

 

do u guys think this can be my pump?
cuz if it is ill have to order it right away.
if it was the pump what other things can i get to make my temp be cool.
stats?? maybe a manual fan swictch?

ive also had the loss of powerstering and im sure i dont have leaks from hoses so im guessing is the pump but i cant understand the temp fluctuacions. help me out.

btw ty for the fast replies u guys are great support
i love u guys !!!

 

I think its a sticking thermostat...
Your thermostat is spring operated and opens when a certain pressure is applied to it.. So when the coolant starts getting hot pressure increases forcing the thermostat to open. If the thermostat sticks then it wont open until much more pressure is built up.
So if your coolant goes up to past 220 and close to red then comes back down and stays down... then my best guess is that.
I would buy a thermostat for 10 bucks and change it out... Bleed the system again...

I'd also look at your fans running just incase to see if its on at 220 when the car is heating up.

 

I would also start with the thermostat...but I had a similar problem with my s-10 and flushing the system really well solved the problem. I had some gunk that was running through the system messing up the temperature sensor.

 

Does the temp go up into the red and then fall back down repeatedly or is it only the one time after the car heats up?