Running warm!!

Hey all, got an annoying issue at the moment.
Noticed a couple of days ago that the golf seemed to be running a little warmer than before, and the heaters not as hot. So, i changed the thermostat as its easy, and replaced the coolant after flushing the system. Unfortunately, I let it run, seemed ok. Took her for a drive and she ran even warmer and the heaters even cooler??
So, I have tried re bleeding and running while header tank lid off, pumping all pipes manually to move any air and checked all pipes warm.
My problem is, I seem to think that the lowest pipe on the radiator running to bottom of water pump seems to take forever to get warm. Does this mean the water pump is broke? Are there any test I can perform to confirm?

Pleas help  :redfaced:

Pull the little hose that goes from the top of the Rad to the expansion tank and Rev the engine, it should squirt abit more as you rev. that shoews the pump is atleast pushing the water abit.

BoomBip, have done this and it is passing water back into the header tank. I have had it running for a bit and kept squeezing the lowest pipe and it eventually got warm. Fingers crossed it has made a difference.
Will take it out in the morning and see what happens, come 9pm tonight, I had had enough  

Yep. just pull it of,(when its not scalding hot) and give the throttle cable a tugg. should increase the flow out of it.
 i thought mine was running hot when I first got it as the Needle was just on just on the other side of the warning light, But its always been there since. The bottom rad hose does take a while to get hot. As it takes a while to heat the element in the Thermostat. checked for gunk on the oil cap?

If you replaced the thermostat then its possible its running slightly warmer (due to manufacturer tolerances in making thermostats) but if its not in the red on the coolant temp gauge, you shouldn't need to worry.

If you want piece of mind, best to fit an oil temp gauge too. |The coolant temp sensor and gauge in a mk1 aren't that great and are variable in their readings anyway, so you can't really say what bit on the needle means what temperature, unlike some more modern cars.

Thats assuming you don';t have some kind of underlying cooling issue. They're not too hard to bleed and it sounds like you've done it right, so I'd not say its overheating unless there's other symptoms too.

Thanks for the responses guys.
I realise the sensors may be a bit unreliable, so for piece of mind I think additional gauges will be fitted. Thanks again