Excessive heat from center console/shifter

[djKibblez]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue before. Whenever I drive the car (97 M3) for some period of time (say 15+ minutes), I get an excessive amount of heat radiating from the center console - specifically the sunglass holder area under the OBC and the shifter surround get very hot to the touch. So hot in fact that my iphone will power off due to the heat if left in the sunglass holder. My first thought is the transmission. I figured there would be insulation between the interior console and the tunnel. I was going to take apart the center console to see what's going on.

Anyone else experience this? Doesn't seem normal, but maybe it is and I'm just paranoid.

Thanks

[shogun]

check from below the car, see pics here Transmission Tunnel heat/sound insulation sagging https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2464826-Help-with-underbody-question

[L8Braker35]

Make sure your shifter insulation foam is installed as well, and do an under car inspection to make sure your cats aren’t overheating.

[scoobiedoo2029]

the heat is normal. the insulation is probably gone. it sags and hits the driveshaft and is annoying enough most poeple ,myself included, rip it out and find themselves in your situation. there is a rubber gasket angst the body to the shifter hole, and then a 2 inch peice of foam around the shifter in the cabin.

the oem trans tunnel piece was NLA last i looked and will require removal of the engine and transmission to replace with new. seeing how difficult it would be to yank out the forward section of this insulation with the transmission installed im betting most people still have have the forward section of this insulation intact.

there are a bunch of dynamat like sound insulation products aimed at trans tunnels, all of witch sound difficult or gooey to install in a dirty trans tunnel. but that gold foil seems like a fancy way to pimp your underside....


someone sells a reinforcement hoop for the factory insulation that i believe might be able to retain a piece of furnace insulation like kaowool. my thought are to make a few hoops to put a piece of insulation with some kind of backing ( fronting?) material in the hole and pressed angst the trans tunnel.


this job is on my growing list of maintance to sort out to put my m3 back into DD use.


clogged cats would probably feel like a flamethrower under the car without insulation its certainly worth investigating.

[djKibblez]

Thanks everyone. After doing some reading it does sound like I’m missing some insulation underneath, but I’ll confirm when I can get underneath the car. I’ll check for clogged cats too.


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[scooper]

Check carpet and trans tunnel insulation and lastly, foam around the shifter.

[66 6]

Actually I bet your heater valve has failed and the valve is allowing hot coolant to enter the HVAC unit when you don't want it. I had the same issue. radio, HVAC unit sunglass area was always hot, valve failed and BMW has them fail open so you always have heat if needed.

[scoobiedoo2029]

Actually I bet your heater valve has failed and the valve is allowing hot coolant to enter the HVAC unit when you don't want it. I had the same issue. radio, HVAC unit sunglass area was always hot, valve failed and BMW has them fail open so you always have heat if needed.

thats a really good point.

[ta2cj]

Hello. I had the same problem. Gear lever and center console in hot weather. The angular insulation sponge around the gear lever and the round rubber tire on the bottom of the gear lever were worn. When I changed it, both the incoming sound stopped and the excessive heat disappeared.