Jward, my needles is similar to yours. it sits between r and m but closer to M during normal operation but in traffic or really hot days it will sit around A or L until I return to a reasonable driving speed. The only time it's passed the Normal area of the guage and hit the red was with a broken water pump. I am knocking on 100k and my Tour is working better than ever. I do plan on adding redline water wetter whenever (if ever) my coolant level drops.
