Engine Overheating Options

[Araykhel]

I have an ST204 that just crossed over 107k miles and I'm having some overheating issues after the car has had about twenty minutes of drive on it. When my car is driving at normal speeds my indicated temperature usually sits at half, great and normal . But once I let off the gas and decelerate the temperature climbs in no time. I find that idling is the worst and my temperature sits just below the red line when I do so.

I've used the great and nifty search feature to educate myself on all the issues to check/ possible fixes however I still have some questions. The first thing I want to check/ replace is my thermostat however I tried searching for a how-to assuming it wouldn't be a simple swap and found none. Do I need to drain fluids ( ) to do so?

[Araykhel]

Didn't mean to bring this back from the dead for any reason other than to finally put this to a close. The ST-204 just crossed over to 109K and I replaced the thermostat somewhere around 108500K. The overheating problems stopped altogether however one evening I had a sneaking suspicion after a night of aggressive driving ( had to escape from a traffic officer with my friends, terrible I know, but very fun) that there was going to be a coolant leak. Sure enough I didn't have to walk very far from my home before I could smell the coolant there was a sizable puddle right beneath my water-pump. My thoughts are that the thermostat faults may have led to overheating which damaged my water-pump. Thanks for all the help figuring it out, definitely more fluent with the ways of cooling systems now than I was before I asked for the help way back then.

Currently in the process of getting her fixed. I can get the pump from Toyota for $99.16+tax, timing belt for $60 or so, not sure what else I should replace while I am at it. Finding the place to have her worked on is another project since med-students don't make much money nowadays.