Temperature Fluctuations

My 01 Intrigue is having some temperature fluctuations. The needle doesn't go over the 1/2 mark, but it will move around between 3/8 (middle of 1/4 and 1/2 marks) and the 1/2 mark, based on how hard I'm pushing the gas. When I'm coasting for a while, it will inch up to 1/2, but after I push my foot down a bit to accelerate, it will slowly move back down to 3/8, sometimes even lower. Also, it doesn't do this all the time, just on occasional days, but when it does it, it will do it until I turn the car off.

In addition to this, on cold mornings when I first start it, I hear a noise coming from the belt area, most likely the water pump. It's not too loud, nor is it really a squealing sound, but more of a slight chirping, but with .5 sec intervals.

Anyone have any suggestions? I now have 79,000 miles on it and had a coolant flush about 20,000 miles ago and put new dexcool in it. I don't see any sludge in the coolant at all and it has good color, so I don't think that's the problem. Do I have signs of waterpump troubles? Thanks for your help, folks.

http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp

increase RPM, decrease in temp (car stationary) = waterpump
increase in speed, decrease in temp = cooling fans not coming on.

I would try to get another few years out of it since the heat is within range. No fishtank bubbling sounds? With the chirping you wonder if the waterpump bearing is seizing up = you will soon know.

It would be nice to add and LED indicator for the cooling fans to see when they are on.

Actually there is a slight fish tank bubbling sound. It almost sounds like water boiling on a stove, but not that loud or "bubbly." It happens when I let it idle for more than a few minutes. When I turn the steering wheel it goes away. When I stop, it comes back. Perhaps it's related. Forgot about this: the A/C doesn't work either (but haven't needed it) - could this be because the cooling fans may not be coming on or cause the waterpump could be having troubles, inturn affecting the compressor.

when I changed my coolant I used the engine bleeder. -but I used it wrong. You should fill up coolant until it comes out of the bleed screw = that way all the air is out of the system (then tighten the bleed screw). I just used the engine bleeder to drain all the coolant out (probably didn't matter).

=may car now has the fish tank bubble syndrome sometimes after the coolant swap. Temp is consistant and even cooler. I believe the Intrigue is basically a self-bleed system = eventually the air comes out.
:bananadie

try that WaterWetter stuff. Be patient and don't spend to much money on it right now. See what happens in the summer.

Scratch the earlier thought on the engine bleed screw -I did it right. It's basically a self bleed system and you take the air out of the radiator with the air bleeder there. The radiator is higher than the engine = the air should escape up + the coolant resevoir is higher than both = the system self bleeds.

My car did the chirpy thing with temp fluctuations, turns out the belt tensioner was toast. Which, if you do it yerself, is a major pain in the ass because they decided it was a good plan to route the coolant thru it.