Is My Van Really Overheating

[Pickles]

When I bought my 1.9TD doka syncro it always ran cool under normal.
Except when it was hot in France on the motorway at 75mph in 30 deg temp were it ran slightly hot.
I thought maybe there was no thermostat in.
On the dales run it ran a little hot and was dripping water from the reservoir it was split.
I replaced the reservoir put in a thermostat and bled the system.

Today I drove it for the first time to work on the motorway it ran very hot. Tempreture gauge at 9/10.

I am not sure whether the engine is running hot or not.

Did not boil over no spilt water
Radiator warm to the touch not hot.
Engine pipes hot
Return pipe from rad warm
Level in reservoir above min
heater working
Undid rad bleed screw only a little air came out then water.

Is it
1. Faulty temperature gauge or sender
2. Water Pump not Working (fan belt ok)
3. Head Gasket
4. Something else I haven't thought about.

[Mocki]

sounds like an airlock to me

[banana]

Last year i had a similar symptom to yours. Air locks created the problem you describe. On my 1.6TD I would find that once I stopped after a run on idle eg at toll booths etc the engine temp shot up and the red flashing light kicked in. I drove with the heaters on etc to keep temp down. The air locks affect the sensor that triggers the cooling fan etc and so it all turns into a vicious circle of over heat.

Get the air out the system, keep an eye on levels in both bottles.( Be aware of full expansion bottle ( number plate) but low coolant bottle in engine as this was a head gasket problem for me where the engine kept blowing air into the water)

Normal running should be as you first described with some rise in temp on hills ( quite high sometimes) but that should be accompanied by fan cutting in and quickly cooling when you go down the other side.

I hope you get it sorted as you cant enjoy the scenery when your looking at the temp guage all the time.