190-230 It is normal on hot days, anything that pushes 250+ means it's overheating and that's bad....It's probably your sensor....

 

would the sensor explain all my issues tho? my biggest concern at this point is the coolant dripping out the bottom of the reservoir. having ot constantly add coolant gets real old

 

coolant leak is another problem...there should be like 2-3 phillips screws holding in your coolant reservoir...take those out, and see if you can find a leak, might just be a bad connection....sorry, don't remember everything we were talking about...a leak, you will have to find on your own, I can't see what you're looking at...the sensor should fix your gauge giving you a misreading tho...

 

after you replace the sensor, it might throw a different code, or none at all...cross your fingers.....

 

the reservoir isnt leaking, its coming from the pressure valve at the bottom of it when i turn the car off. its like the coolant starts to bboil

 

first post, and wanted to share my same issue.... I bought a 97 a6 quattro 2.8 12v with bad head gaskets.... it would boil the coolant in the motor after some driving, but the gauge would never go past 1/2, but the coolant warning symbol on the cluster would come on.... I fixed the heads, but after I was done I had the same thing goin on as U do, and I found that my system wasnt bled out properly.... heres what I did that worked like a charm...
open the bleed skrew on coolant pipe that connects the heads together, (drivers side of pipe behind the head) fill cooling system till no bubbles come out... I then took a pressure tester and pressurized the system, and loosend the top most clamp on the heater core and waited till it was only coolant coming out. I was amazed @ how much air the system holds, in my 13 years of working on cars for a living I havent seen a car hold so much air after U open up the system (I honestly avoided audis because of how picky they are, and now I own one =) ) if U dont get ALL the air out, it will boil the coolant out of the expansion tank when U shut the car off...