need some serious advice help the needy

[KompressorMonkey]

im new to the forum and today what had happen was....long story short my friends dad played a prank on him drove his car away in front of him while his mom was parking the car "mom had a panic attack and backed into my grill" so cosmetically it didnt look too serious just a bent star now to the serious part of this im not shure if my radiator is cracked or something, i dont see any leaks of fluid but the heat of the engine went up for me what it looked like wasnt normal any ideas why its alittle above normal it also fluctuates higher and lower and i was stationary the whole time. i washed the car before the incident happend, it was low 70s degrees im in nyc

[KompressorMonkey]

also would any of you have any idea if i had a cracked radiotor would it give me a CEL?

[Streetglower]

that temp is normal.

[Eesjunin]

The temp seems a bit high, i dont think mine goes over 80 at any given time...well maybe when its 100+F outside...Just a comment, not sure on the rest of questions

[lkfoster]

I cracked a radiator a couple months ago when I hit a bobcat (the animal kind). Temperature never budged from normal for the two hours that I drove it on the freeway. The first I knew that it was leaking was when the low coolant warning came on.

[FrankW]

check for coolant leak first. temp is aways going to be high for forced induction cars. mine hovers around 90deg daily.

[Whosdis]

The temperature looks about average. The temperature fluctuation is normal, too. As the temp goes up, it causes the fans to kick in, and as the fans draw air through the rad, the temp goes down.

[Black04C230]

My temp is usually at 80 almost always, so I would say it might be a bit high. If your grill only had a bent star, I would find it hard to believe that this accident caused any harm to the radiator though.

[virgoe]

i had a similar problem with my 230k 99, but it seems that MB cars work at very high temperatures .