usually the car runs with the temp gauge needle at the t of temp. now when i stop at a lite or idle a while its at the m.this is much hotter than ive seen. i dont hear the fan clutch coming on what do you think.my mechanic says its the summer they all run hotter i think i have a bad fan clutch or some other problem. the thermostat is new. help

 

i had a similar problem with my 93 t-bird w/ a 3.8L..i replaced the thermostat thinking that would do the trick and it did for about 5 minutes then it got really hot and i noticed that the gasket around the water pump was a little wet so i went and bought a new water pump..this did the trick along with flushing the radiator and putting all new coolant...the temp gauge hasnt seen much past the "N" on the gauge since then...im almost sure that this is your problem but not 100%

 

where does it usually stay at the t or m or p. whats normal.

 

my car ususally stays between the N and the O of norm on the temp gauge...when mine started creeping past that and eventually started overheating when it is 10 degrees outside is when i started to suspect something in the cooling system..first i replaced the thermostat like i said previously then i found out that the water pump was leaking...needless to say the temp gauge doesnt rarely get passed the N now...im thinking that if the needle is staying fairly close to the cool side, wouldnt worry too much but keep an eye on the temp gauge and if it does seem like it is running really hot get it checked out right away..hope this gives you a little bit of an idea