Engine Overheating Badly!

[mjamoose]

I have a 1990 Golf Driver 1.6i and the engine temperature flies up at an alarming rate! I had it idling on my driveway for about 10 minutes, revs never went above 2000.
The temperature gauge rose to well above the normal operating range, you could see the needle on the gauge moving the temp was rising so fast!
I have checked the oil and water levels, they are both normal.  Just below max when cold.  Also what colour should the water be?  Sounds stupid but mine's has a sort of brownish tint to it, could possibly be rust tho...

Any suggegstions / advice gratly appreciated!

[monzablue16v]

get your bottom hose off your radiator and dump the contents into a bucket that brown is rust and rust blocks up your radiator then put it back on and refill with water and blue antifreeze maybe try changing temp sender if that doesn't fix it but beware it's a tapered thread and doesn't go right in oh and they snap easily too apparently

[Bam Bam]

...while you have the hoses off the Radiator get a hosepipe and reverse flush it to clear it out, when you have water flowing in one constant direction the reverse flow helps to clear it out better.

Jim.

[John Goldick]

Do it asap.... my heater matrix blew up a few days ago due to some kind of blockage 

[mjamoose]

Many thanks for the adivce guys,  I intend to sort that out tomorrow, if I can get some antifreeze from Chavfords!