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How’s it going, I’m new here first post and first c5 I’ve owned. Coming from bmws definitely a big change. So far so good but I just had the armrest section of the interior out and I have found something interesting that may be normal but I truly don’t know. It almost looks like flex seal sprayed and hardened on the tunnel all down the seam. Also found some metal shavings under the arm rest and shifter dash piece which probably isn’t so good either. Attached are some pics if anyone has seen anything like this before or has any insight on what it could be or why! I have attached photos and there’s a photo where after I scratched it off to see if maybe it was covering damage or something but don’t seem to notice anything unusual.
It gets pretty hot when you are driving hard maybe the carpet lining melted, or it could be the baked on residual rubber from aftermarket sound deadening that has been stripped away? Could also be a spill that got baked in, looks like it's coming down the back 'waterfall' from the trunk.
Do you have it off for a shifter install? If so you could check inside when you remove the shifter assembly... or maybe just start scraping and see what it looks like underneath?
It gets pretty hot when you are driving hard maybe the carpet lining melted, or it could be the baked on residual rubber from aftermarket sound deadening that has been stripped away? Could also be a spill that got baked in, looks like it's coming down the back 'waterfall' from the trunk.
Do you have it off for a shifter install? If so you could check inside when you remove the shifter assembly... or maybe just start scraping and see what it looks like underneath?
It definitely can get hot around the tunnel, especially with long tube headers, but it shouldn't get THAT hot, especially not on the top of the tunnel. The area OP posted is directly above the torque tube. That means that heat from the exhaust would have to have traveled up through the tunnel plate, through the tunnel itself, and into the cabin. that's a distance of 12 or more inches with a decent amount of metal in-between.
I'm thinking it's the remains of some kind of sealant or glue that was put there in an attempt to reduce sound or something
Your tunnel looks just like my 1998. Lots of flex seal on the seam.
Heard that a production manager emphasized that the seal on this seam ensures no exhaust CO or engine fumes get into the cabin.
Assembly techs heard this and heavily sprayed this seam to be extra sure it was sealed. Hence the excess.
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I had the center console off my C5s a lot and mine never looked like that. IMO, either something got sprayed/spilled on the area (could be something like FlexSeal) or the heat caused some add on to bake on the area.
C5 interior tunnel questions
