BMW E46 Project Car Gets a Shifter Rebuild
Yes, there’s a part two video, this process took that long.
With the full shift assembly out, I was able to knock out all of the old bushings. They were all trashed. However, before I reassembled everything with those shiny, new ECS Tuning parts, I brought out the pressure washer, some sand paper and some rattle cans.
Ferrari has Rosso Corsa, Lotus, and Aston Martin have British Racing Green, my garage has Satin Lagoon. Somewhere along the way, this vibrant blue tone has become synonymous with everything happening in the garage. So, I decided that every bit of Project E46 that I upgrade will get marked in Satin Lagoon to prove its provenance. Thus, the transmission crossmember and shift assembly got a coat of the stuff while I had it all apart.
After everything was cleaned, painted and fitted with replacement bushings, it was time for reassembly. It’s the reverse of the removal process, duh! All jokes aside, as if by magic, putting it all together went smoothly and took about an hour. For those wondering, putting the bitch clip back on is much easier than removing it. Woo-hoo!
With everything back in place, I hopped into the driver’s seat to take a look. Hmm, well, that doesn’t look right.
Notice in the picture above, the transmission is in neutral, but the shifter is leaning to the right. What gives? At first, I thought I installed something wrong. So, I started removing things and reassembling. After the third time doing this, and realizing I was getting nowhere, I whipped out my phone and did some Google-fu. It turns out, I did everything by the books. The brand new shifter bushings revealed a pre-existing issue that the saggy, worn out old pieces were hiding. This 210,000 mile-old transmission has worn out shift detent pins.
In short, this condition happens to a lot of older BMW 5-speed transmissions. Detent pins help locate the shifter, as they wear out the shifter will begin to lean to one side, usually, like mine, towards 5th gear. This issue can result in the transmission being stiff, or difficult to engage the lower gears when the transmission is cold. Beyond that, it’s pretty harmless. Seeing as how the repair requires a handful of specialty tools, and removal of the gearbox, I opted to pass on addressing it for now.
Well, there we are, shifter refresh complete! Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the next round of repairs I am tackling, but it’s off to a great start. Tune in next time when I remove the whole rear subframe and suspension from the car. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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