Volvo: volvo 960 overheating, 1997 volvo 960, good day ray

Question
good day ray

i hope you had an enjoyable vacation. i have a 1997 volvo 960 with 72000 miles on it. the engine light recently started to go on and off, i then drove the car from san francisco to riverside california, about 432 miles. about 300 miles into the trip the light came on, and stayed on. still no problem, but then about 50 miles further a minor accident occurred in front of me stopping traffic for about 15 minutes, the car started running hot, pegged into the red. i decided to pull off, then traffic started, and dial went to the half-way point, and stayed for the rest of the trip. a few days later i drove the car about 5 miles, it ran hotter than usual, but never went it to the red until i stopped at a traffic light, even then the needle would oscillate from hot to out of the red, then i would take off, and the needle would go back to near the midpoint, but still slightly higher than normal. stop at the next light process repeats. i got home popped the hood, no signs of leakage, and no visible signs or sounds of overheating. the engine, nor the hood was hot, no sizzling or gulping sounds nothing, except the fan would stay on for 10-15 minutes after engine was off. did a obd check , it reads p0303 misfire in cylinder 3. any ideas? i want to keep it running. it's twelve years old, with only 72k miles, and rides like on air. thanks you very much.

kenneth

Answer
Kenneth,
Tough to say what happened. It would be best if you took the car in and had the cooling system tested to see if there were any problems. Now I have seen many bad t/stats that would be a good starting place. If the gauge reads up and down could it be low on coolant? Be careful not to overheat that engine that could cause major damage. The temp sensors might be going out, but that ususally sets a fault code.