GreenFamily

Good morning all, I'm new here and on my third Fusion. I started with a 2012 SEL 2.5 that I absolutely loved and traded in for a 2018 Energi Platinum that while being a really nice car, I just didn't love like the 2012 so first of the year, I got rid of my 2018. A couple weeks ago, I found this 2012 Sport for the ridiculously low price of $3,500 so I grabbed it up and brought her home. The body and interior are in almost perfect condition so I couldn't pass it up despite having over 200k miles on the clock. I figured at that price I could afford to fix some stuff as it came up. All that I have managed to accomplish so far is brakes and some nice dark tint. That being said, she does have a weird overheating issue that I'm trying to track down but have a thread already started for that.

I have been banging my head on this one for a couple weeks and my searches are not turning up anything useful. 2012 Fusion Sport 3.5 AWD She overheats when climbing hills on the highway but cools down almost immediately after cresting the hill. I did the thermostat the other day and did find some rubber pieces stuck to the thermostat, similar to a tire tube type rubber. I've burped the system several times and she only drops coolant level when overheating. I'm going to replace the radiator and flush the system this weekend but not sure it will make any difference. I also purchased a vacuum filler so I will refill that way. No white smoke, no water in the oil, no power loss and ~200lbs across all 6. My brain keeps going 'water pump, water pump, water pump' but I'm not excited about digging that deep with so many projects going at once. Honestly, if the water pump ends up being the issue, I'm going to replace it with the whole engine since it's sitting over 200k. Thoughts?