Passenger Floor Temp at highway speed

fj80toyman · 04-17-07, 02:33 PM

For as long as I have cruised and searched these boards, I've never heard any conversation about anybody having complaints about front passenger floor getting hot at highway speed.

If there's already some information here, old or new, would someone be kind enough to point me to it.

Otherwise, if anyone has had this problem and found a working solution, let me know.

I have a '95 with a TRD blower, but even before the blower install, my wife always complained about the floor getting uncomfortably warm during highway driving.

I tried putting some insulation above the heatshield directly below the floor, but the source of heat seems to be coming more forward than that, more like where the cowl meets the floorboard.

I bought some header wrap but haven't installed it yet, but am not convinced this is a good idea, mostly out of concern for overheating the catalysts.

I think that the underhood temp, especially now with the blower is very high and the passenger side is the only place for it to escape the engine room. Along with the exhaust and high under-hood temps, it all seems to collect right at the footwell.

I have considered venting the hood with louvers, but shy away from that type of bodywork unless I know for sure it'll work.

Any results from others with this problem?

Thanks, Dan.

alkaline747trio · 04-17-07, 02:43 PM

Catalytic converters stopped up. Which end of '95 are you? If you're pre-OBD2, I'd gut the hell out of them and save the wad it would cost for new ones. If you dont want to go that route, or are OBD2, look for what people have done to replace their cats.

fj80toyman · 04-17-07, 03:19 PM

'95 w/OBD2, dual cats, stock, 107K miles, probably not great condition but O2 signal doesn't indicate any trouble. I'll dig deeper into pre/post O2 signals. Thanks for the tip. Dan.

alkaline747trio · 04-17-07, 03:25 PM

You're not gonna have a code, it's still filtering what it's supposed to, just not flowing like it should, so heat is building up before the cats. I'd consider following what DanKunz has done, better flowing and out of the way.

maximBJ70 · 04-17-07, 03:57 PM

I had this problem too. It seems as though the heat shields from the exhaust (a foot or so below the manifold) are no longer doing thier job. I found that without them there it got quite toasty. I never actually saw any heat shields there in the first place as I don't think they'd last 20+ years but it seems to be most logical reasoning that I could find. In your situation, could there have been more heatshields that disappeared over time?

alkaline747trio · 04-17-07, 04:09 PM

Heat shields are basic on the 80s, he either has it, or he doesn't. And seeing how low of miles he has on his rig, I would bet it is his cats stopped up (usually lots of miles means lots of highway, low miles means lots of runs where the cats dont heat up enough to burn off gunk...lots of gunk build up = heat). There are a 100k mile item anyways, replacing the cats or improving the factory design will yeild results regardless.

Uncle Ben · 04-17-07, 04:22 PM

Heat insulation between the carpet and the floor will help quite a bit! Also, can you feel heat coming from the console area? If so you need to replace the weather boot at the shifter hole. I'm running a 3" single high flow cat w/heat sheilds and the floor is still hot. When I built my 1FZ I did have the ported stock exhaust manifolds ceramic coated which reduced underhood temps drastically but the passenger side floor was unaffected. It's a Cruiser thing! 40 - 60's have hot driver side floors and 70 - 100's have hot passenger side floors. You can reduce it but it is the nature of the beast!

alkaline747trio · 04-17-07, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Ben

Heat insulation between the carpet and the floor will help quite a bit! Also, can you feel heat coming from the console area? If so you need to replace the weather boot at the shifter hole. I'm running a 3" single high flow cat w/heat sheilds and the floor is still hot. When I built my 1FZ I did have the ported stock exhaust manifolds ceramic coated which reduced underhood temps drastically but the passenger side floor was unaffected. It's a Cruiser thing! 40 - 60's have hot driver side floors and 70 - 100's have hot passenger side floors. You can reduce it but it is the nature of the beast!

FJ's have hot DS, ZJs have hot PS....

Also the ceramic coating is going to concentrate the heat right where the coating stops, great for underhood...not too great for under foot. My cats were stopped up on my '92, gutting them has made the world of difference in under foot temps, mileage went up a touch, and gained a little performance, next step is to find a shop to remove them, straight pipe them, and tuck them up higher.

fj80toyman · 04-17-07, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alkaline747trio

FJ's have hot DS, ZJs have hot PS....

My cats were stopped up on my '92, gutting them has made the world of difference in under foot temps, mileage went up a touch, and gained a little performance, next step is to find a shop to remove them, straight pipe them, and tuck them up higher.

Thanks for the good thread. Unfortunately, gutting the cats is not an option, I live in regulation-rich California and it would never pass smog without them. In fact, I'm sure you know that most muffler shops won't even touch the cats if they're not the same or replacement spec than OEM. Now of course I do know shops that will do the work for cash and no names, but I need it to run clean.

So this has me thinking of other things that need attention, including checking the O2 sensor output as I'm getting horrid mileage, and when it accelerates away from me (wife or son driving) I notice the exhaust is a little black under acceleration. I ramble.

Anyway, I think it's time to do some front to back update, including dumping the stock muffler and tail resonator - needs more flow.

Dan.

alkaline747trio · 04-17-07, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fj80toyman

Thanks for the good thread. Unfortunately, gutting the cats is not an option, I live in regulation-rich California and it would never pass smog without them. In fact, I'm sure you know that most muffler shops won't even touch the cats if they're not the same or replacement spec than OEM. Now of course I do know shops that will do the work for cash and no names, but I need it to run clean.

So this has me thinking of other things that need attention, including checking the O2 sensor output as I'm getting horrid mileage, and when it accelerates away from me (wife or son driving) I notice the exhaust is a little black under acceleration. I ramble.

Anyway, I think it's time to do some front to back update, including dumping the stock muffler and tail resonator - needs more flow.

Dan.

You need to do something about the cats, that's where the heat buildup problem is, OEM replacements are EXPENSIVE...you can get magnaflow replacements that will filter the same, but i'm not familiar with what has to happen in kali to pass.

MTBGUY · 04-18-07, 06:50 AM

Alkaline Trio is correct. I just replaced the Cats on two of my cars (one older Toyota and one older Lexus). The source of the heat is the plugged up Cat which is struggling to do its job.

You can change the O2 sensors, which Is what I did at first, but the real solution is replace the Cat. You should be able to get an aftermarket (magnaflow) installed for around $200-250. I did it and the car seemed like it gained an instant 30 horsepower. The aftermarket Cats are newer technology also than the original 1990's design (3-stage instead of 1/2 stage) so you can get away with just one.

On a side note, the passenger floor temps went down considerably and the the MPG went up by about 1.5 mpg. The O2 sensors did not help the MPG in my case, but the Cat definitely did!

Good luck!

Bear80 · 04-18-07, 06:55 AM

It's most likely not the cats. Especially if you have passed CA emissions. I use to be sweating it out for as long as I can remember ridding in my dad's, now my sisters '95 crusier and it has well over 200k miles now. NO cat-converter issues. I think the heat builds from the exhaust being on that side, radiating heat from the engine bay into the cab, heat from the floor from the cats and heat build up from the tranny.

When I bought my 'cruiser first thing I did was put heat/sound mat under the carpet. I get it from Pep-Boys for about $20 a roll. I think it took me three to do the whole floor of the 'cruiser. Makes a WORLD of difference in heat. I first used it in my mini truck and 4runner because on long drives it would cook my feet. Afterwards, ZERO heat, not much for sound deadening though. Great stuff and cheap!

MTBGUY · 04-18-07, 08:50 AM

My car passed emissions with the semi-plugged up Cat. Its probably time for you to replace it anyway. The federal emissions warranty only lasted ~7 years on these, which gives you a good idea how long an "average" lifespan is. I like to compare Cats to shock absorbers- yeah they still work (sort of) when they get old, but its hard to notice the slow, gradual degradtion of performance. When I changed mine on two cars it was WOW! this is how the car is supposed to accelerate.

I think what someone else mentioned is correct- my car is low miles (74000) and had lots of shorter trips- not many highway miles earlier in its life. I'll bet many of the higher mileage Cruisers with more highway miles that ran hotter/cleaner through the Cats have less trouble with this problem.

At any rate, if it were my car I'd replace it AND insulate the floorboard more.

MTBGUY · 04-18-07, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bear80

It's most likely not the cats. Especially if you have passed CA emissions. I use to be sweating it out for as long as I can remember ridding in my dad's, now my sisters '95 crusier and it has well over 200k miles now. NO cat-converter issues. I think the heat builds from the exhaust being on that side, radiating heat from the engine bay into the cab, heat from the floor from the cats and heat build up from the tranny.

When I bought my 'cruiser first thing I did was put heat/sound mat under the carpet. I get it from Pep-Boys for about $20 a roll. I think it took me three to do the whole floor of the 'cruiser. Makes a WORLD of difference in heat. I first used it in my mini truck and 4runner because on long drives it would cook my feet. Afterwards, ZERO heat, not much for sound deadening though. Great stuff and cheap!

I'm just curious were your sisters/dads cruisers OBD1 or OBD2? I think Toyota had both models in the 95 year and wonder how this would affect the situation. Thanks!

alkaline747trio · 04-18-07, 09:27 AM

A plugged up cat will pass emissions the same as a non plugged. If anything, a pugged cat would reduce emissions more since it restricts the velocity of the exhaust gases so the element has more time to react with the junk flowing out.

Bear80 · 04-18-07, 10:06 AM

I think its on the rare side to find a '95 that is not OBII but they are out there. From what I've found the '95 is limited in some of the trouble codes, mainly updates on transmission issues. I suspect due to the intro of the electronically controlled a343's first year. Also I know that my '97 computer will work in the '95 but I didn't try it the other way around.

As for the cats, when it was my dad's cruiser the passengers side was always hot. Also the MPG hasn't changed and the seat-of-the-pants feel of power is still there. Cat's can and do get clogged but not usally.

Also my '97 was warm on the passengers side, though I never rode over there. I don't think it was nearly as warm as dad's but never the less I put the heat mat down and no more worries.

alkaline747trio · 04-18-07, 10:09 AM

Cats are a 100k item according to Toyota. And I would be willing to bet that if you replaced the cats on either your's or your father's rigs that the PS floorboard temp would drop significantly and your mileage/performance would increase.

Bear80 · 04-18-07, 10:11 AM

As if I'm not mistaken the computer with throw a code if a cat becomes plugged. It's probably a good idea to change them however, for the cost to benefit, I'll just wait for the CEL.

Bear80 · 04-18-07, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alkaline747trio

Cats are a 100k item according to Toyota. And I would be willing to bet that if you replaced the cats on either your's or your father's rigs that the PS floorboard temp would drop significantly and your mileage/performance would increase.

Don't think so. The '95 hasn't changed since it was new, MPG or power compaired to my '97. Mine had 60k when I got it, and the '95 with over 200k feels the same, minus the VC humping

We'll see though, I plan to cut off my second cat and I'll see if I "feel" more power--doubt it though.

alia176 · 04-18-07, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fj80toyman

For as long as I have cruised and searched these boards, I've never heard any conversation about anybody having complaints about front passenger floor getting hot at highway speed.

If there's already some information here, old or new, would someone be kind enough to point me to it.

Otherwise, if anyone has had this problem and found a working solution, let me know.

I have a '95 with a TRD blower, but even before the blower install, my wife always complained about the floor getting uncomfortably warm during highway driving.

I tried putting some insulation above the heatshield directly below the floor, but the source of heat seems to be coming more forward than that, more like where the cowl meets the floorboard.

I bought some header wrap but haven't installed it yet, but am not convinced this is a good idea, mostly out of concern for overheating the catalysts.

I think that the underhood temp, especially now with the blower is very high and the passenger side is the only place for it to escape the engine room. Along with the exhaust and high under-hood temps, it all seems to collect right at the footwell.

I have considered venting the hood with louvers, but shy away from that type of bodywork unless I know for sure it'll work.

Any results from others with this problem?

Thanks, Dan.

This has been discussed in the past but not sure on which threads exactly. I know that I measured the temp of the floor and the center cubby and found them to be quite hot. I don't have a blower. I'm not sure venting the hood is the only solution but it can help I s'pose. The cats do get hot and the tranny tunnel gets very hot on long trips in my case.

One easy solution would be to remove the cats out of the equation and see if the floor temp decreases significantly. A straight test pipe and two clamps are all you'd need for this experiment. Of course, you'll be throwing a P420 code (catlyst below threshold) but it's a monitor fault only.

Cheers.