running warm
 

I've got an '04 3400 sedan. 91k on it. I had the cooling system flushed, put a new thermostat in it. Both fans work.
It still likes to run warm. In idle around-town traffic, it creeps up above the half-way mark on the gauge. And when it does, it smells hot, hardcore.
Most of my driving is highway, I just noticed this recently when I spent a day around town. Ambient temps have been around 50-60 F.
Get air moving and its fine. But it makes me nervous in city driving, that needle just creeps higher and higher and it smells so hot. It's never overheated, but I'm sure if I let it sit there long enough, it will. And the temps have been cool. I'm sure it'll be worse once summer kicks in here.
What else should I look at?

Whats the coolant level at in the reservoir under the hood?

what you NEED to do is get your hands on a scan tool that can read your coolant temp that your ecm sees. my car went all the way up to 224 degrees (5/8th of the gauge) before going back down. taht would be normal. you cant guess your temp by your IPC only unfortunitly.

i wouldnt worry unless its over the 3/4 mark. mine goes over half in traffic all the time, once i get my car back and get hpt from chris, ill be tuning my fans to where they kick on at a lower degree so it keeps cooler

And as strange as it sounds, just because it runs above half doesn't mean that's not its normal running temp. Mine always ran above. Did the same as you and same results. Although the burning smell might be bad. Like a leak.

could you put a lower-temp thermostat in? was it running hot before the new thermostat?

could be a sign of the LIMG or HG going..... my 3400 used to do that too...creep up a little over the half way mark when idling....then i got it "tuned" and he made it so the fans stayed on and that solved the problem....until the HG went:lol:

I agree with all that was posted above, but have another one to check to make sure it's not your problem. Drop the rad out, check to ensure that debris and crap has not gotten lodged between the rad and the condenser. Its been an issue with the design on these. There is enough space between them to allow build up between them inhibiting flow!

I wouldn't worry about it , these engine going half mark on gauge are normal temp even a little higher than half in traffic as long as it's under 3/4 of the gauge in traffic you'll be fine

As for the smell... that could only be some fluid that you drop on the engine doing the flush & started to smell when it evaporate as the engine warm up

Wait a few days to a week & see if the smell is going away gradually or not...

My temp are always half mark even in winter & in summer time on a hot day it goes a bit over the half mark not much but a bit over so it's pretty much same temp year round

Sorry I haven't checked in lately :/ but thanks for all the advice.

I don't worry about the gauge creepin above half. I've had plenty of cars that do that. It just bugs me when you can start smelling it. I don't see anything leaking, but I can surely miss something.

I've never checked between the rad and condenser. I'll scope that out.

I don't see anything else pointing towards LIM or HG, just looking at the coolant and oil, it all looks normal.

But, these things STILL have probs with the LIM?! Good lord, every mid-late 90's 3100 I had blew the LIM. I know some of the early 3400's did it, but figured they'd have fixed that shit by '04. Lame.

i flushed the fins of my rad/condenser last summer.... so much CRAP came out of it, there was a pile of sludge that build up under the car lol. my temp gauge hasn't gone over halfway since, and i noticed my A/C works alot better too.