Good evening. I'm hoping one of you can verify something for me. My 2002 9-3 coolant is running a little hot at idle. I Recently replaced the radiator and thermostat from FCP Euro after a pin hole leak developed. The car has never pegged and did a combustion leak test to verify no exhaust gasses in the coolant. I Did a coolant flush and proper bleed. The car had the water pump replaced roughly 10k miles ago. Zero check engine lights or stored codes. Runs beautifully. 113k miles.

If I leave the cabin heat on full blast she. will run around town 175-180? F and stay at idle in the same range. If I turn the heat off at idle she will slowly climb above 200? and upwards of 235? F. The high Temp fan kicks on 235 ? F which will immediately cool her down to 215-220?. If I shut her off she will climb back to 225 ? and semi quickly cool down to 200-210. If I turn her back on with cabin heat on at idle she will slowly climb back to 212-220?. WITH heat on she will not climb higher. Heat off back to 235? , High speed Fan, rinse and repeat.

The only non working component in the car is the AC. The compressor works but I suspect there to be an ac coolant leak. So I did not deem it abnormal that I'm not getting the low speed fan to kick on. I presume the resistor is bad which I have yet to fully address.

My biggest question is that I was led to beleive that the High Speed fan should kick on @213? F NOT 235?

I have good heat...... Car is running great. Zero evidence to suggest head gasket failure. No exhaust gasses in coolant.. I wouldn't think turbo to be factor at idle. Car runs wonderfully.

Can somebody please 1000% verify the temps that the ecm should be kicking the htf on? Would the faulty ltf alone cause her to run 20? hotter than spec?. Bad Thermo out of the box? Restricted flow? Faulty Temp switch ( I'm pulling readings from back up scan tool while snapon gets updated.

And thoughts will be greatly appreciated 🤝