I've noticed my car running hotter lately on the highway. It has not overheated, but just runs hotter than I've seen in the past. It used to stay pretty consistent at the first tick mark (7 o'clock position). Lately it is running more around the 2nd tick mark (10 o'clock position).
I am curious if maybe one of my fans is not working so I tried to troubleshoot them today. I drove the car to warm it up to the 7 o'clock position tick mark. I parked the car, opened the hood and saw that the fan on the passenger side was running. The driver side fan was not running, so I opened the fuse/relay box and swapped the relays to see if it may be a relay. Once I swapped the passenger side fan was the only fan running so I know it wasn't a bad relay.

What test can I run to see if the driver side fan runs to rule out that the fan is bad? Does anyone know what temp the car has to be to have that fan run?

Thank you

 

You have two fans but only one will turn on to help cool down the engine when it's hot (Usually at a stop, or hot summer day, ...).

Both fans turn on when the AC is on.

Normal operating temperature is somewhere in the middle.

First mark is still cold.
10 o'clock is too hot.

 

So pretend the gauge is actually where the red line is pointing, this means it is running too hot?

 

Damn you have low miles lol. When's the last time you changed the thermostat or did a coolant system flush?

 

That's not my cluster, just one I found on google. I've got about 134k miles on mine. I don't know when the thermostat was last changed (I bought the car with 120k), and I did a flush in the spring.

 

Oh ok. I would change the thermostat just because you don't know when it was changed and it's cheap insurance. Don't get a failsafe one, just get the stock 195* replacement.

 

Yes, that is hot.
If you are not towing anything, it should be somewhere in the middle.

Replace thermostat, and radiator cap. Also flush the system.

 

Change the timing belt at 100,000 miles.
If you haven't changed it, change it now. Also change the water pump while you down there.
The water pump doesn't cost much but it's hard to replace. It's driven by the timing belt. The water pump when seized, or leaked can cause your car to overheat.

 

Timing belt & waterpump were replaced at 125k when I bought the car.

 

Replaced the thermostat with a stant superstant yesterday and a new pressure cap. Used my Lisle coolant funnel to make sure there were no bubbles in the system. As I drive it to work next week I'll post back if the problem isn't fixed.