Cooling/Radiator FAN

Hello everyone...this may be a stupid question, but when should the cooling fan turn on? I know the obvious answer is when the engine heats up, but I've just noticed that I've never seen the fan actual move...I'm just askin b/c I'm trying to get my tach/ idle problems worked out and I just took notice after staring at the fan blades for 10 min. before and after a long drive that it didn't move...weird thing is my temp. gauge doesn't ever rise above the 1/3 mark so I don't think it is overheating...could this and my idle issues be related? Oh yeah I have a 91 CRX SI MT. Thanks.

Sounds like the fan switch on the back of the block above the oil filter. Check that. If it checks out and your fan relay is okay, the fan motor may be bad. If you want to check to see if your fan motor actually works, simply take the black ground wire from the fan motor and splice a chassis ground to it. Turn the key to on and the fan should run. I've had mine like this for a few years now with the fan on all the time and it runs fine...

Your thermostat could be stuck wide open....causing your car to run cold all the time, and never getting hot enough for the fan to kick on...which should affect your idle. I know if my car never got up to temp it would try to run about 1k-1200rpm, which is what it does stone cold...