My wife drives a 2002 Buick Rondezvous. The cooling fans don't seem to come on until the engine gets pretty hot There was a coolant leak that was recently fixed (new intake gasket, thermostat, radiator cap, etc.) and Dexcool was used according to this particular model. The leak is fixed but the engine doesn't seem to keep optimal operating temp. consistently. The temp. guage used to read 1/2 way between 1/4 and 1/2 consistently. When driving, this is fine because of the air flow but while idling (ie.at a stop light) the temp. creeps up to just over 1/2 and if it gets between 1/2 and 3/4 the fans kick on and bring it down to about 1/2. The fans are on when I run the AC. Is it normal to have this much fluxuation in the temp. guage readings? The vehicle got hot one time about 6 months ago but has run fine since (at least up until about 3 weeks ago). I just don't want my wife and kids to get stranded or do damage to the vehicle. Thanks for your time and help.
Jan 5, 2010 at 8:57 PM