Here's another stab-in-the-dark... does the cooling system build pressure. When it's hot, is there suitable pressure in the system? Might be worth making up something temporary to get a gauge into the system. It needs more than just a pound or two, more like 8-12ish pounds of pressure.
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That's a great point. I had a pinhole in my t-stat housing/inlet last year and I had the same symptoms as WJCO's having. Low speed the temp would jump up. Out on the highway or revving the motor would lower it. You could see where the fluid was leaking and it was really an insignificant amount but the pinhole in the housing wouldn't let the system build pressure. If there's no evidence of an external leak could you possibly have an internal issue?
Pressure is good for sure. I can't even squeeze the upper radiator hose after tstat opens, hard as a rock. And when I let it cool down, then vent the radiator cap to recheck things, coolant sprays out of cap pretty good.
As far as a pinhole leak. Last year prior to replacing the water pump, it was slowly leaking. This idle symptom didn't occur at all. Also last year, I had a fairly active heater core leak, coolant on the floor. If I cleaned up the coolant, it would reappear in about 3 days. Coolant level only dropped after about a month so I left it alone. Again, no issues with temps rising last year even with this leak. THIS YEAR, I haven't noticed any coolant on the passenger floor and coolant level isn't dropping. With that being said, I'm assuming the leak plugged itself, I have no signs of a heater core leak anymore and heater works great. Both heater hoses are about the same temperature, so at least I know there is decent flow there.
If it acts up again today, I think I'm going to do a chemical radiator flush.
Also, another thing. I replaced that fan relay not that long ago. Since I have, I noticed fan not coming on as often. So I tested that a couple days ago and the relay was bad, wtf? I literally bypassed the relay and fan work. I originally only replaced it as a stab in the dark when I did it anyways. So, a couple days ago, I put the old relay back in and fan working normal again. So that new MOPAR relay was bad! What a pain in the ass. Regardless, even with high speed fan coming on normally, temps still rise at idle :grayno: