Okay, I searched and searched and read seemingly pages and pages of posts but I haven't seen anyone else experiencing this problem. Here's what the ol' SC is doing: for the last week or so when I start the car in the morning there's be a slight vibrating and then after about a minute or 2 and me slightly pressing the gas it would go away. These vibrations would happen everyday in the morning during cold start-ups, but always goes away after about a minute or 2. (I'm not saying that the vibrations are related to this next issue but this is what the car has done over the last week or so). Now, Saturday night/morning I was coming home from a club at about 3am. The car had been sitting at a friend's house as I rode with him, I get back to my car, get in and start driving. About 10 minutes later I notice my temp guage is all the way at the top!! I tried not to freak out so I just pulled over to the side of the road and popped my hood. There was no steam, no abnormal heat, no hissing, nothing at all to alarm me so I was stumped. I got back in the car and waited about 20 minutes then started it up again, now the temp was still reading as high but not at the very top of the guage like before. Because I looked over the engine and didn't detect anything abnormal I decided to try to make it home. I got on the freeway and proceeded to drive 25 miles back home to Long Beach. This is when the strangest thing happened. The needle for the temp guage would be in the middle and then rapidly go to the top, then it would seemingly get to a point where it couldn't get any hotter and the needle would drop back down to the middle...it did this like 3 times! I thought I was really REALLY wasted but this really was happening. After a while, maybe 15 miles or so it went back to the normal position and stayed that way all the way home. Strange. So next morning I get up, call my mechanic buddy, and proceed to drive the car out to him so we can inspect it in the daylight (while I'm sober). He looks it over and notices that the coolant level is low, not crazy low just slightly low. So I added a little water to the radiator because my big jug of red coolant was at home. He told me that we should probably change the thermostat as well as the water pump while we're in there, so I plan to do that this upcoming weekend. I haven't seen any puddles of coolant under my car anywhere at all (I only park at home and work for the most part) and I maintain the heck out of it so I have no idea what's going on. I drove into work today without any issues whatsoever so now I'm really confused. Anyone with any ideas please chime in or ask me anything you like...

 

Radiator level was low? Or the overflow jug?

 

The actual radiator level, the overflow jug seemed fine.

 

Could either be the water pump going... Or air somehow trapped in the radiator...

 

Sounds like you're on the right track with the thermostat and water pump. I'd try the thermostat out first. . .Good luck man!

 

therm and water pump huh? I kinda figured they may be the culprits...pricey little bastards...

TeeDub, I don't know how air could have been trapped in the radiator. I know that a couple of weeks ago I flushed my coolant (I had that dex-cool crap in at first) and replaced it with the Toyota factory red, but this was over 2 weeks ago and all was fine when I did that. Unless I somehow got air in the radiator at that time I don't know how else it could have happened. Any other ideas anyone? I mean before I dive into this thermostat and water pump replacement that is.

Thanks bros...

 

Not for our car... But this method is free.... See Purging.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/radiator-purge.html

 

Make sure your fan is working correctly

 

The fan was operating fine, I'm really stumped. When a water pump goes does it GO or is it more of a "it's on it's way out" type of thing. I thought that when the thing goes that's it, no middle ground, just kaput...someone else said the thermostat may be sticking, if so does that mean the therm is going out?

 

Have you experienced any heat from the dash vents during the surge?

 

Nope, everything other than the guage itself is working fine from what I can tell. The part that had me really confused was when I was on the freeway, the whole needle going up up up...then just falling down to normal...then same thing again was very strange...

 

maybe Its just your cluster?

 

Yeah, someone else mentioned that...but there's only like a 0.1% chance of it being the cluster, 99.9% chance of it being soemthing else. I did my timing belt a loooong time ago (about 30k ago) and didn't do the water pump at that time because I was low on cash. I also had the radiator replaced about a month ago btu they said the thermostat was fine so I didn't change that. I was thinking that it had to be one or the other so I was just going to swap them out and hope that solves the issue. As long as this is all it could be, I mean no one else is saying "yeah, I had that too and did such and such and that fixed it" so I'm thinking it's just me not changing those 2 components that's causing my issue. Sure is stressful though. damn.

 

change the thermo first it would be the cheapest thing to do , if that doesnt work i think its the cluster , did you try to disconnect the battery?

 

How exactly did they know the thermostat was good?

This would be my first suspicion. Luckily, their only about $25 or so. But since you're in there, you might as well just change the water pump too since it's been a while and it will need it sooner or later anyway.
Better than changing just one part only to find out it was the other one that was bad