i have a 98 gle.. as long as i've had the car, the temp. gauge has always hovered at almost exactly the middle.... well, today has been a really hot day in boston (almost 90), and i had my a/c on the third-highest setting throughout the course of a 45 min. drive... i was surprised when i glanced down at the dash and noticed the temp gauge was almost all the way up to the 'H' i was sitting in traffic at this point, and my idle was also much higher than usual (usually is right about 600, it was up to almost 1000 at this point)... i turned the a/c off, and the idle went back to about 600 and the temp guage went back to the middle... whats the deal?

 

Your cooling fans are not coming on....

Coolant temp sensor maybe?

 

I hope you checked your coolant.. since that's simple.

It can also be your thermostat.

 

as stated above. check that the drivers (iirc) side fan goes on when you activate your AC.

 

i've had the same problem recently. i investigated & it came out that the motors on the cooling fans were not starting up.
Open the hood next time & check if both fans are working.

I took the motors apart, replaced the brushes, cleaned everything up & it was fine for about a month. Now it's happening again. I will be replacing the motors this time.

- Jay

 

AC fan is dead. for me it's the pass side.

this could be caused by either the relay ~20$ or the fan itself ~200$ for the units.

90? mine dies at 100... i got 10 overheating degrees on ya

 

I agree with the previous posters. The condenser makes heat, and puts more load on the motor, which in turn makes more heat. If the fans arent coming on, the heat had no where to go.