'03 protege5 issue

[pinups]

Hey long time reader, first time poster.
Ive had a Protege 5 for about 3 months now, love it.
Just looking for some advice..
My temp guage goes exactly halfway weather I drive for 5 mins or 5 hours. once it warms up, straight to halfway, never rises or goes lower.
I do notice however that the engine bay gets VERY hot. and the radiator fan kicks in every once in a while.
coolant levels are normal,

has no issue with power and oil is clean. I havent checked my thermostat yet I was going to try the cold start with cap off trick, but I thought id leave a message here to see if anyone has any advice
Only other thing I can think of is that when it warms up, it has some sort of squeeling sound that only happens around 2k rpm, goes away if I accelerate above that. Never happens when cold only when it warms up.
Any help would be awesome thanks, I can get pics or anything if needed

 

[us3r]

That's normal.

 

[zoom zoom sp20]

+1

 

[Cosmic Wonder]

It's normal. Your engine compartment gets very hot. Remember, there is an engine in there creating a lot of heat, your exhaust system, engine, etc.
Your temperature gauge should sit roughly half way up and the fan turning on is doing what it's supposed to do....if you're not traveling forward at a decent speed there is no airflow thru the radiator. The fan turns on to pull air into the radiator when the temperature starts to increase and it will turn on and off as needed.