warren@ihnss.UUCP (Warren Montgomery) (09/04/84)
The floor in my '79 rabbit has started to get very hot when the car has run for about 1/2 hour or so in warm weather. The area in question is between the front seats. In particular, the handbrake mount and seat tracks get almost too hot to touch. This has been getting steadily hotter, and I am concerned about possible damage to plastic in that area and/or fire hazards. Has anyone else had this problem? What can be done about it? I suspect the exhaust system, but have not turned up the problem in a lot of checking. The car has 92K miles on it, and has recently had the muffler replaced. (The floor got warm before this, and this didn't change it any. It claims to have no catalytic converter. A recent checkup in the shop did not turn up any exhaust problems. Visual and hand inspection does not turn up any leaks in that vicinity. The exhaust system does not resemble that in my service books (The Bentley book and Poor Richard's Rabbit book), in that it has a torpedo shaped component 3-4 inches in diameter and 18 inches long right under that area of the car that doesn't show on any of the diagrams. (It looks kind of like the picture canadian system, though my torpedo is smoothly tapered on both ends and meets the pipes with no joints. It doesn't appear to have any leaks, though it does have a little rust on top. Anybody know what I have and whether it may need replacement? -- Warren Montgomery ihnss!warren IH (8-367) x2494