I have a similar problem. The car runs fine but will overheat within ten minutes of driving, then back to normal, heating will blow cold air during the overheat then back to normal for a while. I got a P0117 code pointing to a faulty coolant temperature sensor. I did some reading and replaced the thermostat. When I tried to replace the coolant temperature sensor I got a new code P0118, indicating that this time the sensor was getting too much voltage. This resulted in my radiator fan running like mad and the engine never heating up. I have the old one back in and now do not know what to do.

Uggghh
 

Okay so same exact problems ive blew one engine head due to this took to a mechanic new head/ gasket yada yada. About a year later with small over heat problems, I would just release some pressure and itd purge out would have to do this maybe once a week. Then one day late for work it went straight from cold to hot then coolant everywhere. I ended up saving this head but while replacing the head gasket I broke a cam very very easily I guess from two full over heats. So I replaced the cames head gasket noticed the last mechanic didn't replace any of my cooling components thermo housing water pump or radiator so I replaced the water pump and radiator along with resivor and been threw 4 caps now I tee valved the heater core which helped alot in bleeding the air out but I still cannot get it to stop over heating when I'm driving and not idle I even put a hose to the tee vavle and took all the hoses off to make sure they were all flowing threw and still cannot get it to stop!!! I'm thinking my next option may be driving it into a tree??? Idk if anyone's had any luck in that method but I'm about to go crazy!!!

On some other brand cars it was found that aftermarket (non-OE) replacement pumps had poorly-designed impellers, the part that actually moves the water. This caused overheating, and when a new OE pump was installed the problem went away.

In certain areas of your car it pays to pay the dealer for the OE part. Cooling items is -- in my humble opinion -- one of those.