engine and drivetrain Holes in transmission tunnel?

[blastfamous]

When I removed the carpet, I notice two openings a PO had made in the transmission tunnel a few inches in front of the stick shift. The first one is small and just a couple inches in front. The next one looks is a pretty decent sized T-shape opening. The flaps have been bent back down somewhat.

But I was thinking about doing a permanent seal of these areas unless there may be some good reason for leaving the openings?

[c.d.iesel]

like the old race car drivers :

had a hole in the floor to watch the front tire wear

during a race....

this PO had holes to watch the GUIBO come apart?

weld them back up

[MikeWooldridge]

The smaller hole is for the screw that holds the console in place.

[M3M3M3]

and the bigger hole maybe caused by the guibo coming apart...

[jgerock]

One could be from an old A/C condensate drain tube. The drain in my Behr system dumps liquid directly onto the top of the transmission.

Does your car have some holes in the right front bulkhead and cowl that aren't being used?

[OriginalOwner]

Perhaps access to one of the shifter assembly mounting bolts that holds the assembly to the back of the transmission ??

I haven't looked at it in years and years, but isn't one of those mounting bolts a headache to reach ?? Years and years ago the upper left one kept coming loose and the shifter assembly would move left and scrape against the driveline. So I'd have to climb under and tighten it up.

Maybe that hole allows access from the top .....

Cheers,

Carl

[blastfamous]

Thanks for the replies. I decided to pry the metal flaps back to have a look. I could see some of the shifter assembly. There was a flathead screw on top (see pic), and when I shifted foward and backward (1st-2nd or 3rd-4th) I could see what appeared to be a nut and bolt either side to the shift assembly (see other pic).

So I guess the PO made the hole to access the area. On another note however, there is a large 2.5" + hole on the upper bulkhead on the passenger side. Does that mean this had an AC unit, or do all have that massive hole? It was mostly filled in with some goup of sorts (which I removed to see what in the heck was going on there), but the only wire going through it appeared to be coming from the inigtion coil and leading all the way to the trunk (thin black wire not connected to anything). Was this supposed to be connected to the rear window defrost?

I do have a ton of slop in the shift which I want to address, but I was figuring I needed to be at the base of the shifter and replacing the bushings there to fix that. So if this access is useful, I will do a less-than-permanent seal of it before laying the padding and carpet.

Thoughts?

[jgerock]

Looks like some major tunnel hacking by a PO. Work from under the car and patch those holes. You don't want fumes, road dirt and critters entering.

Here is a picture of my car partially showing the (2) A/C lines and another hole that the factory firewall insulation covers that I used to route my oxygen sensor cable.

Look at the front inner section of your car to see if you have additional holes like these.