Hey guys. Hope everyone's having a good day.

I have a bad leak from my radiator and I'm ordering another from RockAuto(I'm looking at APDI). I'm also ordering a thermostat because I'm having some issues trusting my temp gauge. When I start the car it will be at the bottom just as normal and slowly rise to the halfway point as every car does when it heats up. Mine just sits right below the halfway point, never fully there. At one point when I first noticed the coolant leak I started to feel heat on my legs from the engine bay warming up. My radio unit also felt quite warm to the touch and I could've sworn there was warm air being blown in when I had the AC completely off. This entire time the temp gauge has not moved from that ever so slightly below the halfway point at all. I check my coolant reservoir and notice it's empty, fill it up, start her back up and no more of any of what I just listed. Is there anything else I might need to check in case it's not the thermostat? Or am I just being paranoid?
Also I read that it's good to replace the waterpump after a while. I'm not sure how long mines been on the car is there any way to tell if it needs to be replaced?

Thanks for your time.

 

bump

 

The temp gauge normally sits - at operating temp - just below the half way point.
When you filled the coolant reservoir did you check (once cool) that the rad wasn't also low?

 

Yeah I checked once it was cool and the rad had plenty of coolant. Also, I didn't know it sat just below halfway. That gives me a bit of peace of mind.