My car is sick I think... I was going to drive car to a friends house to start working on it as it needs a lot of TLC (body work) and he has a garage I can work on it at. It has sat for the last year basically, but I start it at least every month. Its sat cause last summer I got the front ground effect stuck on a parking block and they cracked a bit. I didnt want them to get worse from driving around. Well now that college is done for the semester I finally have time to do the work. Normally car doesnt go past the m in normal on the temp gauge. Well the temp gauge is getting to the o in normal just with 5mins of running or so now it seems. Its warm out but not that bad, it has me worried though as ive never seen it that high and ive had the car for like 7 years. I checked oil and coolant is just a little low but at very most maybe 2 inches below the fill to line. (I dont have any coolant atm, but that doesnt seem too low) It starts and runs fine other then that. I just dont want to let it get any hotter and maybe ruin something. Any advice on things to check would be great.

Did you check to see if the fan was working on it?

No I havent checked anything but the oil and coolant levels, I am going to check on it more today. Dont really know a lot about engines, although I'm not afraid to do things myself. I just like to know somewhat what to do before I get into things. Its sat for almost a year like I said, but I did drive it to school one day maybe 3-4 months ago and it seemed fine then. Hoping its something I can fix in end.... Otherwise im going to either have a major project (don't really have a lot of time would have to be able to get it done within 2months), or im going to have to give up my mark, and I really dont want to do that.

Ok, it seems my fan isnt working for 1. But to me it seems like it must be more. I took the car out for a spin this time to test, figuring the extra airflow should at least slow things down. Well it seemed to, I wasnt getting hardly any heat, it was running just fine, drove around the neighborhoods for prob 2miles, at slow pace. Everything seemed fine, then suddenly my heat spikes, within 20seconds it went from the l in normal to the o. I was right by my house so I pulled in and shut it off fast. Opened hood and checked fan (should run after shutoff if car is hot?) it wasnt goin. Figured id make sure and started car again and checked fan and it still wasnt goin. I also checked temp and oddly enough it was down to between r and m. Im thinking best bet would be to just start replacing stuff? Seems to me from the sudden spike I might need to replace coolant and hope there was air or something in there causing the problem. Figure ill get a new fan and replace coolant. Maybe even get a new thermostat. Hopefully problem is somewhere in there. If it seems like it could be something else please let me know what ya think, thanks.

The sudden spike on the temp gauge tells you it's air in the system. You can check to see if the fan works by turning on max ac, it should turn on automatically with the ac on.