I just got a 1994 Protege and when I'm stopped at stoplights or stop for a short period of time, the temperature gauge shoots towards HOT. I can smell what seems to be anti-freeze too. When I'm going there is no problem with the temperature as it stays in the middle of HOT/COLD. Not sure what the problem might be.

 

My 1994 Protege does the same thing, only thing is that I don't smell any antifreeze, nor do I think the car is actually overheating. Does your heater work? Mine doesnt and I think the 2 are related symptoms of a much larger problem.

 

Let me catch you up...after this was happening, within a few days it started leaking antifreeze heavily from the water pump. I had the water pump replaced (expensive job, but I couldn't do it) and the timing belt, an A/c belt and the fan belt as well (the timing belt had to come off with the water pump). This fixed the problem temporarily. It still overheated while idling. I had noticed my radiator was cracked (a small cracked that I attempted to seal) and upon one trip up a mountain pass the seal blew. Time to replace the radiator. I replaced it myself, pretty straight forward, just messy. Problem still not fixed. Still overheats. Noticed after heated up the coolant wasn't getting through the upper radiator hose very well, figured the thermostat wasn't opening. Since they are cheap ($5), I decided to replace it to see. Upon removal I snapped off the radiator fan switch on the thermostat hosing (oops, $25 part). Fixed problem slightly, but not completely. Then I noticed my radiator fan was never working, so I replaced that. After replacing almost every part in the cooling system, it finally was working properly, or so I thought. The other day I was at a stoplight and the temp started to creep up toward the dreaded H. Once I started going, it cooled down. I decided to test it and drove up a curvy road with some steep turns and it did fine. I'm not sure if at that point the thermostat opened up or what at the stoplight.

Some notes about my car: bought it cheap, $450 because the girl was moving. She had been in a wreck which crushed the radiator reservoir a little. I'm fairly sure she didn't take very good care of this car. It has about 149,000 miles on it and the engine seems to run great. The heater works but doesn't blow. I can feel the air eat up, I'm checking the blower motor today.

 

Mine just started doing this as well, I have replaced everything accept the fan. I'm still confused.... Hope someone has an answer.