Hi,
I drive an 06 2.0 CRV. On a couple of out-of-town trips lasting about 3 hours with about 20 minutes spent on winding, climbing mountain roads with inclines, plateaus and dips, I noticed that upon stopping, the floor (which is actually the foldout table in the back) gets rather warm to the touch. More specifically, it gets quite warm only on the area over the exhaust; the rest of the table/floor stays at "room temperature", if you will. As a matter of fact, I noticed this phenomenon since there is a slight "burning" cloth smell to it.
Not wanting to stop and inspect on a pitch-dark mountain pass, I took my chances and waited till I got to "civilization" before checking. At this point, the smell went away, but the warmth is still there.
Anyone had the same experience? Is this a quirk of the CRV under stress? TIA.

 

If nothing is melting and no paint flaking from under the car near the exhaust I don't think you have an issue. It's not uncommon to feel exhaust heat in the floor of a car

 

Is there a material to use to act as a heat shield, perhaps? Its just quite unnerving to be smelling a burning odor while driving at night in the mountains. Thinking of putting it in the spare tire compartment to insulate, or something.

 

I also suddenly have a blazing hot muffler and exhaust on my 2009 Honda CRV. What turned out to be the problem on yours? Thanks, Red 88

 

I believe PhilStubbs' post is the closest answer to my experience. As it turns out, since in the 06 model, the spare tire is mounted externally and the internal cavity for the spare is left empty with the picnic table covering it and acting as the floor, I believe the heat signature is more pronounced owing to the absence of a spare to "absorb" the heat. I did put roofing insulation foam in the space and it seems to have lessened the heat. On long drives, there still is warmth but not as bad. Owing that the exhaust is quite near this surface, heat transfer can occur quite easily. I hope yours isn't gonna turn out to be too bad if you find out its cause. Also, the smell turned out to be a loose wire arcing from the aftermarket foglight switch.

lcn584

 

The temperature of your exhaust will vary greatly depending on the type of driving you do.
If you do a lot of stop / go it'll get pretty hot as there isn't much air cooling it down.
As Phil said, if you don't see anything melting and / or paint flake / discoloration, I wouldn't worry about it. If there is an issue, you'd throw a CEL for some emissions related stuff. That's my guess.

 

06 crv??? With a 2.0???? Are you for real?