I bought a 97 lx a couple of weeks ago and was told ahead of time it had overheating problems. When I inspected the car after purchase noticed the fan wasnt kicking on. and when i unplugged and plugged the relay back in it came on and the temp began to drop. We immediately jumped in the car and took it for a spin and the temp jumped back up. when we got back to the driveway temp was damn near in the red and the fan was not on till I unplugged and replugged the relay in. WTH?

 

With the engine cool check the coolant, both the radiator and overflow.

The fan isn't needed unless you are at idle for a min+ or driving very slow. If you were going 35mph and the temp continued to rise the fan isn't the problem.

 

Boy have I got some possible bad news for you.

My car is doing almost the same thing. Radiator fan seems to be coming on way later than it should. But the fan does not cool your car while you drive, something else is causing the overheating.

Step 1. Make sure your thermostat is operating. Start your car, maybe take it for a short drive and park it, leave it running. Use an Infrared Gun and measure the temperature of the upper and lower radiator hoses. The top one will be around 190ish, the lower hose should be reaching temperatures of around 175 when the thermostat opens. If your lower hose never reaches this temperature, your thermostat is stuck closed and needs replacing.

Step 2. Next, we check the fan relay switch. You say your fan comes on only when you remove the fuse and put it back in? Try swapping the fuses for your cooling fan and A/C condensor and turn your A/C on. If the condensor fan starts up, it means the fuses are good. Your fan relay switch located on the thermostat housing could be faulty, causing your fan to come on late, but this will only cool your car during idle and will not solve the overheating problem while you drive.

Step 3. Inspect the radiator. Is the front caked with bugs and rocks? Are a lot of the fins bent? You may just need to take the radiator out and clean it/unbend the the fins. If it looks really bad, just replace the radiator, but before you do that, do what anibis said. Check the coolant lvl in the radiator when the engine is cold. If you find that your radiator is low (even if its only and inch low) and the overflow reservoir is full or even half full, you could have a breached head gasket.
Also, if your coolant has any oil in it, you definitely have a head gasket leak, but there does not necessarily have to be a fluid exchange for your head gasket to be breached. This is what I believe is happening to my car. Combustion gasses are getting into the coolant system and staying in the top of the radiator, preventing coolant in the overflow reservoir from reentering the radiator when the engine cools.

There is also the possibility that your water pump impeller has failed and so coolant is not properly circulating to disperse the heat.

You should have a chemical test performed on your radiator, that will tell you if you have any combustion gasses getting where they should not be, indicating a breached HG. You should also have the water pump tested, I don't know the specifics, but I'm sure they test the outflow of coolant from your block to see if it's actually pumping as much as it should be.

Start with the small cheap stuff first, and if that doesn't work, get the tests done.