Help! Very hot transmission tunnel..

[Lloydie38]

Hi,

On my track car with carpet out I have noticed that the transmission tunnel where the handbrake sits gets really hot under normal conditions...and seriously hot on the track....I thought this was normal but just bought another e30 325i, removed the carpet and it doesn't get hot at all...Any ideas as to what could cause this on one motor but not the other..?

Cheers

Ian

[E30BeemerLad]

is the heat shield removed on your track car?

[agent006]

Mine gets very hot. Almost too hot to touch on a summer trackday. My centre exhaust section isn't standard though, so i guess that doesn't help.

[Dan318-is]

Possibly gearbox oil? Simon13's gearbox on his standard road-going touring turd use to always get hot i remember. The leather gaitor was always way, way warmer than anything i had ever touched in another e30; not sure if its still like that but it seemed to run fine?

[Simon13]

Dan i'm not getting the same heat now, so i'm guessing it's a time of year thing as nothing has changed for my car

[Dan318-is]

Interesting!

[tomtomiS]

Dan i'm not getting the same heat now, so i'm guessing it's a time of year thing as nothing has changed for my car

except for the exhaust?

[Brian28]

Ian there is an exhaust heat shield on the inside of the transmission tunnel. Very likely that this was stripped out of the track car as it looks the same as all of the other sound deadening panels etc under there, but still in place on the new car. Beware of burning a hole in the left side of your left boot if you rest it against the tunnel when driving, it burns through very quick and hurts a lot. And don't ask me how I know that

[shorty73]

Mines the same. Almost set my foot alight! Well it felt like it anyway. Discoloured the paint on the tunnel.

I've fitted some of that aluminised heatsheild to the floor/tunnel underneath. It's not cheap but neither are boots! I'll see how that goes at Bedford.

[gadjit]

Hi Lloydie

I had this problem after a couple of weeks of receiving my car back from Ant,

Mine turned out to be the centre bearing on the prop, the circular cover that surrounds the centre bearing had snapped at the weld, always got hot while under load, but o.k driving normal,
Worth a look anyway.

Hope you find the problem

Gadjit

[Lloydie38]

Thanks boys - it's up on a ramp soon, then I can have a good look - I'll update the forum with any info I can get