Cooling issues.

[agrantg]

When I joined this forum recently, I suspected that the head gasket on my 955i was leaking. However, it seemed not to be the case. I have replaced the radiator pressure cap and also the broken plastic elbow on the header tank. I have had a few 10 mile runs to work during the week and everything seemed ok. I did 250 miles today and the only issue seems to be that it runs hot in traffic. I was never stationary long enough for the needle to go too high and the fan is kicking in, so my question is how hot should I expect it to run or do I still have a problem?
Also, I will be fitting a brass elbow when it arrives instead of the stock plastic one and need to drain the coolant to put antifreeze in any case, but should I change the thermostat when I have it in bits?
Thanks
Ali

[Chris Canning]

The needle on the temp gauge has never gone past half way on mine ever even when it's been over 40c and well before the needle has even got that far the fan comes on,when you changed the rad cap did you change the coolant? and flush the system changing the thermostat won't do it any harm it's best to start from scratch you know where you are,as for coolant I always use Silkolene Pro cool it's starts a nice blue so you can watch get dirty!!.