well my car always has run hot at an idle, it will sit half way between the 1/2 and red line, but when i'm cruising down the road it's halfway between 1/4 and 1/2. but the other day i was driving down the south austin and i pulled up to a red light and when i looked down at the temp gauge it was sitting at, not on, the red line. i got moving it went down, stopped again and it went up TO the red line. is there a problem with my fans or something? how do i test if both the fans are coming on? i need to get this fixed. i dont care if it runs hot as long has it stays away from the red line.

fyi: i dont know if the other years are different, but my heat gauge goes from 100-260

 

On my '93, had the same prob.... Change thermostat to 160 and got a thermomaster chip from hypertech, no more heat problems... Since '99 and going strong.... My engine is stock though....

 

my car does the same thing at stop lights. then my temp guage went out and stays at 160 all the time (the thermostat is not stuck open) so now at stop lights i just turn my car off. i got used to it

 

I had the same problem, a friend of mine told me to turn on the a/c when I sit at stop lights, and believe it or not the temp. dropped.

 

My 93 gets a little hot once in awhile. I just turn the A/C on and the temp goes down. All the A/C does is turn on both fans, which helps cool the motor off.

 

check your fan fuse 1st in the engine fuse box...

your fans are recieving the signal to turn on if you are able to turn on the AC which activates both.

 

Try flushing your raidiator, and yea definitly get that 160 t-stat and a tune for it. My car on the highway (in summer) sits between the start of the gauge and the 1/4 mark. Around town, and on a HOT HOT day she wont go past 1/4, she will sit on the 1/4 mark thats all. But year deifnitly flush your radiator, I flushed mine and it improved my cooling alot! Also check your fans, i think Shoebox has a write up on how to test it. Also, just for giggles go underneath and look to see that you didn't suck up a bag or peice of cardbord, the bottom air dam on these cars is like a vacume.

 

I experience similar high temps at idle (between halfway and the red) and have been turning on my AC to cool it back down. Is there a way to wire both fans to act in parallel so I don't have to run my AC to turn on the secondary fan?

Thanks.

 

I agree with all the "flush the radiator, change the thermo" statements, it'd be worth checking to see if the plastic 'nose' thing underneath the car is in place, it helps to direct the air. Manual fan switch might be a good option if you want to control the fans by hand.