Miata Mailing List: July 1998, Message #7

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On 6/30/98 21:05, dP swang@argotech.net wrote:

>as the weather starts to heat up here in socal, i've been noticing (feeling
>(?)) more frequently that the right foot/leg area of the cabin has been
>getting pretty warm from the heat coming from the transmission.  the area
>around the shifter also gets pretty hot.  it only takes about 15-20 minutes
>of driving in daytime to cause this unwanted heater action.  is this
>normal?  fearing that the previous owner (bought used at 39k miles) did not
>change the transmission oil at 30k, i've ordered a couple bottles of
>redline MTL oil.  will going to redline take care of this?

Nope, it's normal. The Miata's heater has coolant flowing through it at 
all times, even with the temp control all the way into the blue. Some of 
that heat seeps into the footwell, even on recirc. When it bothers me, I 
just run the A/C through the footwell ducts for a few seconds to cool the 
ductwork back down.

Or maybe it was part of the original plan to emulate an MG as closely as 
possible? On my MG, my right leg was the *only* thing that never froze... 
 :-)

---
Lanny Chambers, St. Louis, USA
'94C

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