E60 545i Short Shifter Install + Review - Page 12

murph550 · 19th May 2008, 01:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by murph550

Installed mine two weekends ago. Took all of about 25 minutes. The throws are a bit shorter, but it is so much crisper feeling, no more of that rubbery play. The ZHP knob is also a great addition. I ended up cutting the stock boot and securing it with a zip-tie, looks as if it came from the factory. Ill post pics if I get around to it.

pics finally....

M55555 · 19th May 2008, 07:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by murph550

pics finally....

Looks good...can't even see the ziptie! Love the DEW!

fmr · 22nd May 2008, 07:42

Picked my car up at the dealer yesterday with the new shifter & bushing and new ps2s installed. First impressions: shift throws significantly shorter and shifter height about 1/2in shorter which is very nice. Shift movement is very close to the previous shifter. My car just broke 13k miles today so the original shifter & bushing were still relatively "new". Still feels a bit like a rubbery crunch when shifting into gear specially between 1st & 2nd -- I was expecting this to go away with the mod but it did not. Regadless still very happy with the mod. Any ideas on improving the shifting feel I described? thanks

M55555 · 22nd May 2008, 08:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by fmr

Any ideas on improving the shifting feel I described? thanks

DSSR for sure!

modenaplz · 8th June 2008, 20:14

Just did this last night, here are some observations:

1. C-clip removal took 5 mins, new c-clip installation took 1 min (skinny asian hands

2. my hardest time was with the damn rubber boot. Reinstallation took me about 7 mins :P
3. It was my first time putting the car on ramps. It was kinda unnerving having my nose 1 inch from the cats.

Impressions:
Like what most of you said.. great bang for the buck mod. Throws are a lot shorter... shorter than I expected they would be. It is much easier to shift now. I still get a slight crunch with my 1-2 shift but that's no biggy.

Question: Was I supposed to grease up the pivot ball/bushing? Because I did. After installing and driving around with the shifter, I noticed a slight burning smell... does the shift lever heat up? Because I accidentally left some grease on the lever itself and forgot to wipe it off.

Diny · 8th June 2008, 20:39

Well, after a lot of waiting, I got this done.

Okay, not "I," and thankfully. The lever itself was no problem, but installing the DSSR was horrible. M5 deamon was defeated by the old selector rod, and it and it took some work by his master mechanic of a father to remove the last clip. From there, it was still rough seas. The DSSR needed some ***-kicking in order to make it fit nice and smooth. I'm glad I didnt jack the car and try to do this myself at home.

But now that it's all done, I'm extremely pleased. The car was already a pleasure to drive, and now it's even more. Shifts are precise, smooth, and shorter. Any rubbery feel is absolutely gone, and there is almost no notchiness (I'm attributing this to the 24-oz shift knob). I thought that the length of the lever would have anything to do with this, but it's not overly short in height. Yet, I need to move my hand a lot less in order to shift gears. I will say, however, that shifting takes a slight bit more effort now. Nothing alarming of course, but this is possibly because of the lack of rubbery feel.

As for the rubber insulation in the shifter, use (as someone mentioned) soapy water, or just spray it with some WD40 and work it with your fingers. Removing it, on the other hand......a bit tricky.

Here are some pictures of it installed.

dragoncoach · 8th June 2008, 21:25

I installed mine last Thursday. Same results: shorter crisper shifts, better feel, less slop, and more notchie feel. Think I'll change the tranny oil. Took about 1.5 hours but most of it was because I took my time putting the car on jackstands. Actually, no problem with the clip (2 minutes w/ small needlenose pliers). The thing that gave me the most trouble was removing the shifter from the ball clip. I just ended up chipping the plastic to remove it since I was replacing it anyway. I ordered 4 plastic yellow washers but after trying to squeeze the c clip on with 1 washer, I left it off and the fit was still pretty snug. If I had to do it again, it would probably take 30 minutes tops. All the information posted by all was very useful in taking on this DIY job. Thanks to all posters!

Diny · 8th June 2008, 21:54

The plastic locks into position. You just gotta unlock it by grabbing it with a pair of needlenose pliers and twisting it counterclockwise until it unlocks. Then, it just slides right out.

M55555 · 9th June 2008, 09:10

Wow, that UUC knob makes it quite a bit lower. Looks good!

jb_shin · 14th June 2008, 20:32

I put the shifter in, as well as the UUC DSSR after only swearing once. Since it is impossible to see the top of drive shaft where DSSR mates to the transmission, I just had to do it by feel but it wasn't too bad.

I only did the E60 SSK as it was cheap, and it did reduce the throw a fair amount, but the shift action is quite a bit knotchy. I hope I will get used to it but for now, my 2 to 3 shift is slower than with the stock shifter. The DSSR really did not improve at all with regard to side-to-side slop in my case and I think I could have saved $150 by skipping it.

Overall, SSK is ok, but not something I would do again.