thermal pad doesn't look thick enough to be effective, thoughts?

[tracerit]

I got my Mobius v3 from Spy Tec/Amazon and opened it up to address issues with a rattling noise when driving on the freeway. I thought it was from the buttons being loose but after applying something to the back it wasn't. Turns out it's from the screw on the lens side (the one that comes out).

Anyways, when I checked out the heatsink, I noticed that the thermal pad only showed compression marks from the chip (chip 1 in the picture) in the back, not the middle chip or side chip (chips 2 and 3 in the picture).

I used an IR temperature gun to measure the temps when the cover was off and Chip 1 was about 100F and chip 2 was 120F. My concern here is that on my Mobius Chip 2 isn't touching the thermal pad (no compression marks on the pad).

Is this normal? Should I cut up the thermal pad and double tape it so it'll make contact with Chip 2?

 

[9a6or]

Cutting up the thermal pad should work, but don't use double sided tape because it does not conduct heat well (I assume). Just lay the thermal pad layers on each other, the pressure of the PCB will keep it in place.

I have some double sided thermal tape and now I've covered chips 2 and 3 with four layers. Chip 3 is a touch lower so I gave that an extra layer. With the termal tape padding they are now flush with chip 1 and so all three chips can transfer heat to the heatsink. This should improve cooling, thanks for your good observation!