[greentrees]

I've had an annoying buzz coming from my 6MT shifter linkage area, I removed the trim today and isolated the sound, it was coming from the area circled in green below, which had a slight gap between the parts, probably from wear - my car has 131,xxx miles. I got a 7/16" retaining clip from Lowe's (2 pack for $1.xx) and it fit in the gap perfectly.

Results: Buzz almost completely eliminated, and to my surprise, the shifts were noticeably smoothed. This made more of a difference than my Hybrid Racing shifter bushings. Pleasantly surprised!

I'd recommend this to anyone who has a bit of slop and/or rattle int their shifter - even a few hours later I was smiling at the difference felt in every shift. For only a buck!!

 

[greentrees]

After my work in post #1 above a few weeks ago, I got to thinking that more could be done to smooth the shift by working with the linkage. I got a variety of O-rings and gaskets from the store and did some experimentation, and ended up putting a few pieces on the area designated by the orange arrow in the pic below.

RESULTS: Awesome! All the wobble that was in the shifter is eliminated, it feels firm and engages more solidly but without any difficulty. The pieces I added are not too tight so I do not see this compromising the OEM parts within the linkage. I've been driving around the last few days really enjoying the shift feel. For comparison, it makes a much more noticeable difference than my Hybrid Racing bushings did.

Cost was like 2 bucks, only took a few minutes. For anyone looking to firm things up more, this is a great DIY. If there is interest I can take things apart and snap a picture.

 

[YellowLobster]

Im curious about some pics! I might have to add this to my list of things to do this spring!

 

[jam sandwich]

in for pics

 

[DC206R]

Would like to see this as well. Lowes is 3 mins away so I would like to try this out.

 

[greentrees]

Of course, in order to get to this part on your car you'll need to remove the cup holder trim piece. There are write-ups on how to do this, it's fairly simple. I greased all the clips on mine with lithium grease so that future removal would be much easier, and it is, as I've been in there about 7 times experimenting with different things.

OK here are 2 pics to explain what's happening:

The pic below shows the retaining clip I described in post #1, the green arrow is pointing to it. I'm not sure if it's the design or because my car as 132,xxx miles on it, but there was a gap there which led to a slight buzz. The retaining ring took care of most of the buzz and tightened up the shift feel.

This next pic shows what I described in post #2, again the green arrow. I isolated the buzz as coming from the area where the grommet was added below - again probably from age/wear. This grommet I used has a groove in the center, available at Lowe's for about a dollar. I had to cut the grommet to get it around the shaft, and then used a piece of insulated solid copper wire (white) in the center groove, twisted it snug, and snipped it off. It's a bit ghetto but it works nice. Then I put some lithium grease all over the area in question. The result was less buzz and a nice firm shift, but in no way hard or difficult. This addition puts no real pressure on any of the mechanism but rather disallows things to wobble. For my car, again possibly because of the mileage, the shift know wobbled a bit in any gear. Now it's firm and hardly moves at all - feels like a new car shifter would.

Hope that helps someone. I'm loving it. Do this at your own risk; I don't think it will cause problems but you never know. Depending on the wear and tear on your car, you may need different sizes than I used.

I threw my package away, but I'll go to Lowe's tomorrow and get a part number for that grommet I used, and post it.

 

[DC206R]

Thanks, I'm probably going to attempt it this weekend and would like to know the part numbers of the 2 mentioned pieces.

 

[YellowLobster]

I hope that these wouldn't add to any wear of any kind.. not that I'd suspect that but just wondering...

 

[greentrees]

I hope that these wouldn't add to any wear of any kind.. not that I'd suspect that but just wondering...

Yes I did suspect it and was careful with the parts I used. I think the play/buzz I was getting is because my car has >132,xxx miles, it's normal wear and tear. Any time a car gets that old you start hearing buzzing and rattles more and things get loose and sloppy. I think with the rubber grommet there is enough flex that it won't damage anything. At rest there is no pressure put on anything; actually it doesn't really even put pressure on anything in there until gear 5,6 or reverse. But having it adds a firm "new" feeling in all gears.

I'll report back same time next year and update how it's working out.

The pic of the retaining clip is above; here's a picture of the grommet I used, all these parts can be found in the nuts and bolts trays section at Lowe's:

Again, just slice it open, wrap it around the area shown in the pic, and use insulated wire (so as to not cut into the grommet) wrapped in the channel of the grommet, twist to snug, and cut. Depending on the condition of your linkage, you may need to use something different to achieve the same results; this is what worked for my car.

If any of you guys do these DIYS please post your thoughts.

 

[awoc]

The rubber grommet does nothing really. The play is in the spherical bushing and the shifter housing. Very surprised you even noticed a difference.

 

[greentrees]

The rubber grommet does nothing really. The play is in the spherical bushing and the shifter housing. Very surprised you even noticed a difference.

You are incorrect, the grommet did make a noticeable difference in my car as I stated, I did not post all of this for nothing. I am not positive as to the origin of the play in the mechanism, but the grommet acts as a bumper and reduces the overall play significantly. If you put a big fat rubber washer on your finger like a ring, though the joint is at your knuckle, the finger would have less movement because the washer would act as a bumper to the rest of your fingers. It's the same principle.