[jfoj]

Question for veterans with short shifter on their M5's.

I am looking an buying a 2003 M5, have driven a few with and without short shifters. The car I am interested in has a Dinan short shifter and it feels a bit "notchy" or not as smooth for 1st & 2nd gear, other gears seem to be as expected. My question is this really typical of most of the short shifters or is it possibly there is either something worn or in need of adjustment, if there is any kind of adjustment?

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[M55555]

Question for veterans with short shifter on their M5's.

I am looking an buying a 2003 M5, have driven a few with and without short shifters. The car I am interested in has a Dinan short shifter and it feels a bit "notchy" or not as smooth for 1st & 2nd gear, other gears seem to be as expected. My question is this really typical of most of the short shifters or is it possibly there is either something worn or in need of adjustment, if there is any kind of adjustment?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Dinan is not known to be as notchy as other, shorter shifters. If the car wasn't warmed up it could just be cold notchiness as with the stock shifter. Moreover, it could be a worn out white bushing on the shifter or perhaps needs a transmission fluid flush. But, Dinan SSK is not notchy.

 

[Diny]

Since the Dinan shifter is basically the E60 shifter and I happen to have it, I can tell you that first and second are known to be like that when cold. As a result, try shifting at slightly higher RPMs (over 3k).

 

[blackxs]

The shifter isnt notchy the tranny is notchy. All M5s are a little notchy give or take, some smoother than others. Test drive a few and if it still feels bad, overlook it.

But a SSK will bring out the notchiness a lot more than the OEM shifter. Test drive a few like I said...

 

[jfoj]

Thanks for the feedback on this issue. The "notchy" feel is not intolerable, just more pronounced than few cars I drove with stock shifters.

The car was warmed up, but maybe a good fluid change and inspection of the ball might improve things a bit? I also think the car has the OEM, not weighted shift knob, not sure if that would make things different?

Overall the car I am looking at is in really good shape, has about 75k miles and quite a few Dinan mods installed. 2nd owner has had the car about 1 year and needs to sell due to financial reasons.

So based upon the cars I have looked at and test driven, this is probably the nicest and had the best sounding engine at idle and had far less crankcase blowby smell then others. This is the only car I have driven with the short shifter so far, so I was not sure exactly how is was supposed to feel.

As I have a 2006 330ci Vert as well with only 35k miles, I know some of the BMW's can occasionally give out a whiff of crankcase blowby smell from time to time.

I really have a nose for this and I specifically smell for blowby, oil leak, oil burning, anti-freeze smells when looking closely at cars, so I do not think this is out of the ordinary for M5?