Although I live in southern France, we seldom get really hot weather (above 35°C-95°F), my car does not have AC, and I have so far never driven it in city traffic, stop and go etc. in such conditions.
What I experience is actually that the engine almost never really gets above its minimum operating t° (85°C?) (maybe it happened once, for a few minutes, after a longish drive on a highway in warm weather as the car was suddenly moving in slow traffic). In fact, the gauge is nearly always below the horizontal, which drove me to check the engine temperature with an infrared gun, during the heating up phase and after a little bit of driving, at the radiator entrance, water pump, engine block (right and left side, front and back). I came away reassured that the temperature was high enough, just barely, in almost all circumstances. The gauge may be off a little bit, but that’s not the reason for my inquiry.
The question I have is how does one check that the fan clutch is working as it should? I have a feeling that the one on my car is always engaged, but I don’t really know how to test it. I’ve read (here and elsewhere) about the newspaper test, but I don’t know what to do with the newspaper except read it
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