Hoping someone can point me in the most important direction, to prevent
an possible impending overheat on my 1992 XJ40 Sovereign.

Things I've noticed, which may or may not be related:
1) Coolant Resevoir gets very hot to the touch after driving.
2) Plastic Driver's side Hood lift arm is getting tacky/sticky,
obviously starting to melt under extensive heat, but nothing
else nearby looks heat affected. Hood lift arm on passenger
side looks perfectly normal.
3) Coolant level light intermittantly comes one when driving
on the freeway, but levels seem fine when checked later.
4) Temperature gauge never goes into the Danger Zone.
5) Sometimes when I start the car up, the transmission light
stays lit -- so I turn it off, and restart. The light then stays
off, but the car operates normally, and does not enter Limp
Home Mode.
5) The Electric Cooling Fan up front does not seem to
operate when the car is idling, neither hot nor cold.
[Replaced the Cooling Fan relay, but didn't seem to have
any effect.]

I'd appreciate any assistance. Thank you!

 

Thanks for the thorough respone!

2. You sure the hood strut didn't blow a seal and is leaking it's oil?
Ah! On second glance, you're right. Thank you!

3. Could be a faulty sensor on the coolant level.
I checked out the coolant sensor. Any idea exactly how these work?
After I pull the sensor out of the hole, it's completely dry deep down
into the sensor hole. Is coolant supposed to flow through the sensor
hole?

6. Try putting 12 volts directly to the fan to make sure it's not a bad electric motor.
Hmm, I traced the wire from the motor back about a foot and a half, and see
a blue plastic plug that isn't connected to anything else. This is odd, I'm not
seeing an empty matching plug where this should plug into.