Overheating issues with my Malibu?

I have a 2002 Chevy Malibu V6 3.1. 55,881miles. This morning as I was driving to work I was stuck in a traffic jam for about a good 20 minutes. While I was sitting there moving about two feet every two minutes I thought it was such a nice cool morning, about 73F I thought I would roll the window down and turned off the a/c. About 3 minutes later I noticed my temp. gauge was slowly creeping up. I figured that the cooling fan would kick in but it didn’t. Soon it was two marks above the middle. I quickly turned on the a/c and the temp started to go down fast back to the middle mark where it should be. I was about one block away from work and decided to turn off the a/c to see what happens. I did and sure enough it started to go up again. It got as far as one mark above normal before I turned on the a/c again and it went down again. Is this normal? My car has never done that before. Is it my cooling fan switch not working? And where is it located?

Background: This car did have the infamous intake gasket issue. At 50,666 miles I changed the intake gasket myself, both upper and lower and put in the green coolant (Malibu already had green coolant when I bought the car six months ago). Malibu did make a distinct knocking sound from one cylinder when accelerating before I did the intake job, but when I replaced the gaskets it stopped knocking, not completely but it was far less. Although now the car seems to knock more frequently than before when I accelerate.

Here is what I replaced during the intake job:
New spark plugs
New thermostat
Oil change
EGR gasket
Upper and lower intake gaskets /felpro aftermarket
Also CAT was plugged too but it was still under GM warranty and was replaced for free.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated…

Could you hear your fan coming on when your AC was on and could you hear it coming on with it off? I thinking it might be a bad temp sensor for the fan not working but when you had on the AC it was being by passed and the fan was running all the time?

I have a 2002 Chevy Malibu V6 3.1. 55,881miles. This morning as I was driving to work I was stuck in a traffic jam for about a good 20 minutes. While I was sitting there moving about two feet every two minutes I thought it was such a nice cool morning, about 73F I thought I would roll the window down and turned off the a/c. About 3 minutes later I noticed my temp. gauge was slowly creeping up. I figured that the cooling fan would kick in but it didn’t. Soon it was two marks above the middle. I quickly turned on the a/c and the temp started to go down fast back to the middle mark where it should be. I was about one block away from work and decided to turn off the a/c to see what happens. I did and sure enough it started to go up again. It got as far as one mark above normal before I turned on the a/c again and it went down again. Is this normal? My car has never done that before. Is it my cooling fan switch not working? And where is it located?

Background: This car did have the infamous intake gasket issue. At 50,666 miles I changed the intake gasket myself, both upper and lower and put in the green coolant (Malibu already had green coolant when I bought the car six months ago). Malibu did make a distinct knocking sound from one cylinder when accelerating before I did the intake job, but when I replaced the gaskets it stopped knocking, not completely but it was far less. Although now the car seems to knock more frequently than before when I accelerate.

Here is what I replaced during the intake job:
New spark plugs
New thermostat
Oil change
EGR gasket
Upper and lower intake gaskets /felpro aftermarket
Also CAT was plugged too but it was still under GM warranty and was replaced for free.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated…


Normal, fan will not come on until 230 F, if you waited it would have come on. I myself don't like to see it climb up that high so I put on the A/C.

Hi. I have the same vehicle and have the same issue. It appears to be knocking from 1 cylinder and it overheats at low speed and idle while on my paper route. If I turn the A/C on it cools down. My fans work right. The mechanic shops around my home can't figure it out. My a/c condenser is a little beat up and I'm guessing it is my condenser restricting airflow across my radiator. That is the only thing I can think up to be the issue. Let me know if you figure something else out.

I just keep the A/C on, doesnt seem to ever get past the halfway mark.

On my 99 Malibu I keep the blower switch on defrost/floor all the time. I guess this keeps the a/c or the compressor on which, in turn, keeps the radiator fan on? Gauge stays at 1/2 mark consistently.