04 Manual rx8. While sitting at idle after the car is warmed up, I noticed that the fan has been continuously cycling. The fan will fire up for 2 seconds, then cut out for about 7 seconds. Any ideas on the culprit? My gauges are all "normal", with both temp gauges facing almost straight north, without moving.

 

Entirely normal

The fans turn on when your fan trigger temp is reached, they run and move air through the radiator, cooling off the coolant there, dropping the coolant temps under the fan trigger temp, so the fans turn back off. Without air moving through the radiator, the temp slowly climbs again till it hits the fan trigger temp again, and the fans re-fire.

Every car with electric fans works this way.

There is only a problem if the fans never turn on (suggesting a problem with the motors, blades, or fuse), or never turn off (suggesting that it isn't cooling the coolant enough)

 

Ha, thanks! Great explanation!

 

is the AC on?