Is it just me or do all T5's run hot? I have a Hurst shifter and the shaft gets so hot it will hurt your hand. I was thinking of attaching a thermocouple to the tranny to see what the actual temp is. Does anyone know where a good place on the T5 to measure the temp? What should the temp be? If I was a little low on fluid would that make it heat up more? Would a synthetic fluid help to lower the temp? It gets so hot that it heats up my interior.

I don't know if its all of us, but mine gets hot as a ****
I can't believe how hot it is sometimes. I get the burnt fingers sometimes...
I've thought about adding a transmission cooler myself.
I'd be curious to know if there are other T5's sweating out their drivers?

Same here, i know mines down a quart of lube, and i also have headers so i thought thats why.

I also have a hurst shifter and yes it gets very hot, even with the metallic insulation i put under the carpet. It cools down after cruising on the freeway, but around town the shifter is not fun to touch.

I had an 84 v6 t5 years ago and it never did this.

I drove around last night at 4am on the freeway with the ttops off and the tranny kept so warm i didnt need to use the heater.

Notice the pattern? We all say our T5's get hot, we all also have 350's in front of them. Mine never got hot when I had the V6, now its like a heater. It has to be because of the bigger engine.

Pretty much everything I've heard about the T5 is sht. Like its one of the worst trannys ever built. Especially for our cars because of the power limit. I may absolutely be wrong, but I've been told that they can't handle much more than the stock HP/Torque #'s. I think that may be part of the problem as well. I know I'm running substantially higher than stock #'s. I just accept the heat as I'm generally cold to begin with. It only really bothers me in traffic on a hot summer day...

I was just thinking about hitting the junk yard and finding an ac condensor and rigging it up to the fill and drain plugs. One post i read mentioned the convective action of the fluid would cool it.

Not trying to be a wiseacre, but seriously look into your exhaust. I've run a T5 with no floor sealing at all, T56 also. Neither ran hot at all. Now, with an exhaust leak, or a partially blocked up catalyticl converter, yes I've seen interior heat from hell. Just a thought.

I don't notice mine getting hot enough to burn me. I mean sure it gets warm but deffinatly not hot enough to touch. I am running the Pro 5.0 as well which is an excellent conductor of heat. I second looking at your exhaust.

I am sure the exhust is fine. When the car was an auto there were no heat issues. I ran the car with no cat and it was the same. I am not saying that the shifter will burn you, just that it's much hotter than it should be. My question is will it run cooler with synthetic lube? If I was low on lube would that cause the heat problem? I have owned many standard transmission cars over the past 30 years and never had one that made the shifter get hot or one that you could feel the heat rising from the console/ shifter area. I was just wondering if this is a thirdgen thing or is it just my car. I guess by some of the responses that others share this problem.

I had an EGR Error code coming up the past few weeks. That is when I noticed mine running hotter than normal. It runs hot, but it had been getting significantly hotter. Anyway, cleared the code and I'm back to 'normal' running temp. Obviously, running temp will be different for everyone. So, yeah, I would say it might have something to do with the exhaust as well.

Well remember that the T5 is right under the floor pan and the shifter is only a few inches away from it. Most other cars have remote linakges (FWD cars) or trucks have really long shifters. These two things separate the driver more from the heat of the tranny.

all these non believers think its just a little warm, nope its hot hot hot. I have no exhaust problems, ive been under the car a hundred times in the last month.