For the past few months (since winter really kicked in up here), my temp. gauge will be right in the middle most of the time while driving.
However, when I have it parked and leave it running, even only for a minute or two, the temp. gauge will quickly rise to the red line.
It doesn't matter if it's been running for hours or just a couple minutes before parking it either. Or in some cases now that the weather is back to summer conditions, if I just start it in the morning and have it running while I get stuff organized for a few minutes it'll start to overheat then as well.
Once I get moving again, it goes back down to the middle again and stays there.
Before winter though (I've only had the car since April), the temp. gauge would normally only be about a quarter of the way up... whether driving or parked. Although it has always had a "hot smell" to it after driving for a while in the summer then walking around the hood, possibly because I was still re-learning how to drive a standard properly.
Any suggestions on what the problem might be? I'm not the mechanically gifted type so I could use all the help I can get.
Thanks, Chris