My car hates me. And the feeling is deffinatly mutual. I'm driving to work on the highway, when I smell coolant. My car get's to the point where if I don't stop, it will over heat. The temp needle was hovering at, or slightly about the high mark, just before the red mark. The next morning I had the coolant flushed, which did nothing. Soon I had the thermostat replaced, which did nothing. Then I had the radiator rotted out, which also did nothing. The main thing I'm noticing here is that the temp needle tends to jump. This overheating issue doesn't really happen in stop and go traffic, but I think that's only because the engine is typically staying at low rpms. When on the highway though, it starts out cool, then jumps past the normal line. Then it stays there for a bit. Then jumps again, and again, then will stay at the hot line. If I'm cruising (usually at 80mph), it will stay at the hot line. If I floor it and the tranny downshifts, the temp will usually take a sudden drop. Why? Why does my car come up with the most odd problems? I did a search on this, and after a few hours I gave up, because I can't find anything about the needle jumping, and dropping suddenly like it does. What I'm thinking is that the water pump is bad, but I want to be certain before spending more money on this.