I have a 2001 silhouette, I had an issue that the temp gauge would go 3/4 way up when idle, i noticed the cooling fans didnot come on, i turned the ac on full and the fans worked I have bled the cooling system, replaced the coolant temp sensor and still the fans do not run unless the ac at full blast. when should the fans kick in with temp needle 1/2 way less or more

Thanks

for responses

I have a 2001 silhouette, I had an issue that the temp gauge would go 3/4 way up when idle, i noticed the cooling fans didnot come on, i turned the ac on full and the fans worked I have bled the cooling system, replaced the coolant temp sensor and still the fans do not run unless the ac at full blast. when should the fans kick in with temp needle 1/2 way less or more

Thanks

for responses

I had a similar problem with a 2000 Silo.

The temp gauge would read way below the half way mark when at operating temp and when idling in traffic would creep up to well over the 3/4 mark and still the fans wouldn't turn on.

Like you did, I turned on the A/C to run the cooling fans and the temp immediately dropped back to normal.

I suspected there was a wrong T-stat installed and it turned out I was right (for once).

To me it seemed the engine ran too cool, so I changed the T-stat from the 180 that was in the engine to the 195 it was supposed to have.

Now the temp gauge reads (at operating temp) just a bit above the 1/2 way mark and doesn't overheat when idling.

As far as the cooling fans kicking in according to temp, I found mine was heating up to almost the red line (240+ deg) before activating.

the 1st fan will kick in a little above 1/2 and if still climbs the 2nd fan will kick in at 3/4 to try and cool it down.with the a/c on both fans kick in a little above 1/2