NxDauntless

Hello there.

I'm new to this Forum.
I looked for an answer to my problem but I couldn't find any that felt quite right for my issue.
If I overlooked something I'm very sorry.
I also would like to apologize for any error in my English. I'm from Germany and still learning.

I bought a Mustang 2001 v6 about 2 months ago after I arrived to the US and I was very happy with it.

My problem is the following.

A couple of days ago I was on a fairly long drive back home and I realized that my Temperature Gauge was rising.
I was fairly far away from any place I would call civilized (basically in the middle of a swampy area in Florida)
so I continued driving hoping for the best.
The temperature kept rising... It almost reached full deflection on the scale.
At that moment I had to stop for a second to merge into an intersecting Highway.
As soon as I stopped in a matter of seconds! the Temperature dropped considerably (from almost full deflection to just about 5/8)

I kept on driving and since I was in the safer area I drove all the way home.

The day after, while I was driving to work the check engine light came on and was giving me the p1285 code.
I looked up that code and it is associated with a "Cylinder Head Over Temperature Condition"
Which I guessed was caused by overheating the day before.

On my regular drives to and from work the temperature is normal but as soon as I take the car for a long drive
the temperature rises again.

Some people say it might be the coolant (level is good but I might replace it soon since I don't like the color/condition all that much)
Others say I have to just change the Sensor for the Temperatur and that might fix it.
One local mechanic even went so far to tell me that it is a giant problem and fixing the car would cost thousands of dollars.

Any of you might have any input that might help me to fix that problem?

Thank you very much in advance for your time and help