do a search and you will see that this is normal for contiques. only with the zetec, if it is the v6, it has a water pump failure. when one of my mystiques did this, i changed the thermostat, coolant, did a radiator fluse,added water wetter and did not change the gauge reading one iota. i put my obd11 scanner on while on a test drive and no matter how high the gauge said, it never got over 210 degrees and then the fans came on till about 204 dg. gauge still said almost hot. i then changed the sending unit and it still said almost hot. feel the water hoses and see if it feels to hot. probably not.
