Originally Posted by fulltimefamily

Thanks very much for the help and response.
I've cracked open a beer at 9am to celebrate the cheap fix with a $12 thermostat. ( I going to look around at how much a radiator replacement would run to determine how many beers this calls for).

Here are my thoughts on trouble shooting though I have close to no mechanical ability.

I thought to remove the thermostat (though I did not check it's operation on the stove till today). I found that my car overheated just as readily with no thermostat as with a non working one. I did check the operation of the new thermostat in the same pan on the stove with the old one before installing it (new one works, old one didn't).

The car now runs about 9 degrees cooler (about 96 instead of bouncing around 105 at what i used to consider "normal") It had recently been heading toward redline at 125.

However the fan still "freewheels" at 96degrees. Should I be concerned if the fan clutch engages at this low temp? I don't know what temp will activate the clutch but it does not concern me as long as things are running this cool.

I just offered this as an observation since so many forum replies suggest clutch replacement if it free wheels at normal operation temp. I wonder if the fan is even called upon for cooling under mild driving conditions and is working just fine by not working?