hello, when i drive around for a while (less than 1hour) it gets pretty hot in the cabin. heat is at the coldest and fan is off but feels like it's heating. is it normal? the shifter boot also get pretty hot. I cleaned the cabin filter and checked the coolant level and temperature, everything is normal

 

What's the temp outside? Are your windows up or down?

The boot gets hot because it's right above the tranny and CAT.

 

Upon re-reading:

Sounds like cat failure and/or transmission fluid overheating.

Our cars run hot anyway, any you can feel "warmth" through the footwell, shifter, and cup holders usually. When it feels "hot", usually your cat is overheating due to failure or your transmission is overheating.

If it's not the cat, do a transmission fluid replacement with fresh fluid.

 

Riwwp maybe I am reading it wrong myself but I think you completely missed the point of this thread. I believe he is saying the cabin is hot inside and FEELS like there is hot air blowing from somewhere when everything is off.

I get the same exact thing, hot as hell for my legs and it almost feels like the heat is on. I just assumed it was from the transmission being basically the armrest.

 

is your intake air set to fresh or recurulate? as with the fresh air on, with every thing off it still pulls the air and it will pull the hot air from the engine compartment, and when i flip it to recurulate it stops... try that.

 

That's normal

 

don't drive around with the fan off, leave it at 1. Problem solved. You could also roll down the windows.

it's been my experience that driving around in any car with the fan off and the windows up, when it's not winter time, will result in the inside of the cabin being unbearable hot and stuffy.

 

Turn the a/c on and your cabin won't be hot anymore...lol

 

Flip open those rear windows and suck that hot air out.

 

It's about 80° outside and i'm almost always on fresh air

transmission fluid is about 2 month old and my car has 75k km, dont think my cat is clogged

 

I go back to my original statement....

Is your temperature control **** not sending the right temp to the onboard computer? It's a common issue, and usually gets stuck on the wrong side of the temp scale when it breaks.

 

It is common that the solder connection breaks on the temperature control. You can spend 1 1/2 hours to pull it out and re-solder it your self or $500 to have the dealer replace the module. There is a DIY on how to do this on the site.
It happened to me in December when I didn't have any heat.

 

Remember that the 8 doesn't have any old ordinary cup holders. They are in fact cup warmers, and the heat is always ON.

 

Normal.

Turn the blower on with the temp dial on cool. It will dissipate the heat from your vents, but your cupholders will still be warm.

 

you can also remove the center section and add extra insulation. There's a diy for it.

 

You can bypass the heater core like the NC Miata guys here have done:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=375731

Most new cars have the coolant always circulating in the heater core no matter the HVAC temperature position. You can loop it or put a control valve in between. The only drawback to bypassing it is the coolant that stays inside the heater core for long periods of time with it bypassed, may cause buildup/corrsosion issues. But you should make the system easy to put back to normal operation, preventing this.

 

On the contrary...opening the rear pop-outs lets the hot air in.

 

Nope. Al's right. Passing air pulls the hot air out. If you have the front windows upen. It helps pull air through the cabin as well.

 

Only if the front windows are open. Here in AZ when it's hot you have to keep the rear's CLOSED or the thing can't cool. You can feel the hot air blowing in from the back even when running down the road.

 

very normal.
when its cold outside, my cup holder actually keeps my drink warm.

 

Hmm. It gets hot here in the summer, but not AZ hot, so i've never experienced it. Good to know.

 

WOW! WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!

My AC blower was shot...running at about 15% speed on high...HOT. I slapped in an aftermarket one for $50 (motor only) and THAT THING BLOWS! [:>) Way more CFM than stock!