Hi, I recently noticed smoke rising from my shifter. When i took off the outer boot and its surround i saw that my middle boot which consists of those 3 rubber things to block heat had melted. At first i thought that maybe i had an exhaust leak after checking though all i could find was a small leak and it did not seem to be able to produce enough heat to melt the boot plus it was further down the car. From what i know the boots were original. Can anyone help me out to find out if this can be a sign of a bigger problem or just the outcome of old middle boots deteriorating.

 

mine are melted..i can see street through my shifter

 

my boots were deteriorated over time, now if your shifter is getting burning hot, it might be a sign of the bearings in the trany are on there way out or bad fluid or something... if the heats not from exhasut then its from friction!

 

I used to be able to pull my pickup's shifter off the transmission, it freaked my friends out.

 

i have the same problem, only i know why mines like that

1) its a junkyard boot (all the rubbers)

2) HEAT SHIELDS... our exhaust is VERY VERY hot. If your missing shields you can feel it in the cabin very readily. before i put some back on, i could melt lifesavers in the console.

 

hey Gundam, I have a 1990 GXL too

so these boots that are melted, do they show signs of being covered in oil? as in, oil leaking up from the shifter. is the small inner boot also deteriorated? if so, replacement of all 4 boots (3 middles and one inner) or just the inner boot, and a good cleaning could solve the problem.

 

Well it was kinda hard to tell if oil was leaking since the shifter was completely covered with the melted boots but yeah i already replaced the middle boots and im thinking of buying a short shifter in a little while so hopefully it does happen again. Thanks for your advice guys.

 

The odds are that the rings on the shifter are blown. Oil from the shifter has rotted the inner boots. The smoke is that oil burning. Simply changing the boots will solve nothing. Mazdatrix sells the shifter kit. The felt heat/sound pad is prolly also gone to hell. Replace with OEM. It is cheap.

 

I bought my car with NO boots in it... i just shoved a rag around the shifter and it works great. No heat coming up any more. And best of all it was free.

 

LOL. 86GXL your my hero.

 

Hey does anyone know if those shifter boots they sell on ebay, the outer ones, are any good?

 

Um... thanks?? i think??... haha

 

BAH! www.redlinegoods.com <-- custom made FC boots. reasonably priced. awesome pics. no ebay.