Comment 9 for bug 1491797

This model of thinkpad has 8 levels of fan control:
      0=off,
  1-2 = 1900 RPM
  3-5 = ~3000 RPM,
  6-7 = ~3500 RPM
and a disengaged mode works at ~5100 RPM

The 6-7 level @ 3500 RPM should be enough to dissipate heat generated by a loaded CPU. The fact that your fan is running at 3500 RPM is indicating that the fan control is correctly enabling the highest fan control level (6-7) and even that is not enough to dump all the heat out of the laptop. Also, thermald should be actively throttling back the CPU as a passive mode control, so this should also help reduce the overheating. The fact that this seems to be occurring across a wide range of kernel versions suggests to me that that perhaps this is hardware related, for example, is the thermal paste between the CPU and the thermal pipe/fan unit working correctly?