I have a 2002 330xi (68k mi) with a 5-spd manual and am having some less than crisp shifts. I've noticed two specific symptoms: The most prominent is that the shifter tends to get stuck to the right inline with the 5th gear slot. I have no trouble getting out of gear, but when I pull the stick back to neutral, it sticks to the right instead of resting in the center (inline with 3rd and 4th gears). Finding 3rd gear becomes difficult when driving as I have to be deliberate to find the 3rd slot instead of using the natural straight-forward shift motion. If I leave the shifter out of 5th long enough or in lower gears, the shifter "unsticks" itself and moves back the standard central position when in neutral. The second issue is that I sometimes the shifter does not slide easily into 1st. I feel like I hit the "notch" at the entry and have the move the shifter slightly to guide it into gear. I think this may have to do with worn bushings? I've talked to a friend with a 2001 Z3 manual and he hasn't had any trouble of the sort. Does anyone know what kind of issues I might be looking at. Would replacing all the shifter bushings do the trick? Is the stickiness problem with the linkage internal to the transmission? Hopefully this is something I can take care of without spending hundreds of $$$!! Thanks in advance for any help!
If you have never changed the transmission fluid, I'd suggest changing it and refilling with BMW OEM or the proper Redline fluids and see if that fixes it.
You probably already know this, but just in case... Take your car for a drive for about 30 minutes, with plenty of shifting. Take your car home and start draining the fluids as soon as you can. The fluids being warm will flow out of the transmission better and also will flush more stuff like small metal shavings out of the transmission. It's always a good idea before you take out your drain plug to first loosen your fill plug and make sure you are able to get the fill plug off. It wouldn't be fun to empty your fluids only to realize you can't fill it back up. Have fun, it's not a bad job. Tim
Get Car to Operating Temperature First BIMMIR is spot on on this. Get the whole system up to operating temperature before draining. Should have remembered to add that. Also I'd suggest torquing everything back to the proper OEM specs too. Am unsure of the setting but someone with more technical knowledge can provide that.
Great call on torque... This could help you next time, or the next person, be able to get the plugs out.
