Ok, my wife is getting POed at travelling in the vert, too much heat coming from around the shifter.

Most if it seems to be leaking out at the bottom of the plastics, and out to the passenger seat side (lucky me)


But the shifter gets pretty hot as well....


Any thoughts of cause and repair? I was thinking some heat shielding might take care of most of it, but the hot shifter bothers me.

 

You are missing the inside rubber boot and/or matted insulation.

Remove the shifter part of the console and you will see that the rubber boot is missing or torn. The insulation matting looks like high quality carpet matting should cover the entire area under the shifter boot .

 

Also check for the heat shielding under the car, it is possible it was removed at one point. The heat you are feeling coming from the transmission is normal. If you want to reassure yourself, check the fluid level and make sure everything is where it should be.

 

There should be some heat around the tranny, but it should not be uncomfortable. If the shifter is hot and you cannot touch coins left inside the ashtray, the insulation is not there.

 

ExActly! I had the same problem with my 89 GTU and after several summers riding around in a Black GTU in the summers with the AC not working and much encouragement from forum members I decided to check out the shifter boots. The main inner boot was largely gone and what was left was badly melted and mangled. My shifter had too much play in it anyway so in May I removed the outer shifter boot console mount and could see the driveway. There was nothing between the out boot that covers the shift lever and the driveway, all the hot air that flows under the car from the engine bay and from around the cat and exhaust was coming into the passenger cabin.

Since I needed to rebuild or replace the shifter anyway I ordered a short shifter kit from Mazdatrix with all the rubber boots. After a couple hours of easy work I had everything replaced and have not had anymore hot air in the cabin. It is great!. The A/C problem was a bad A/C relay which one of the members of the Raleigh Rotary Drive-In diagnosed. I went to a local Auto Retirement Center and found out that Honda cars of the general time period used the same relays as Mazda. I found several and once the relay was replaced the A/C works again.

All is wonderful in my rotary world. If you don't want to replace your shifter just get all new rubber boots from Mazdatrix and your wife will stop complaining, at least about the heat.

I have found a wife to be an excellent onboard diagnostics tool! Give them a DOT map and they can also be a cheap substitute for a GPS system. They delight in letting you know when you miss a turn or are exceeding the speed limit, or following the car infront too close, etc.

 

aftermarket exhaust?, I think the stock y-pipe is double walled, if you have an aftermarket one, it is radiating too much heat.