Gear shifter for steptronic trans

[rking117]

Hey folks, it is time that i have my own issues to deal with. Yesterday i got in the vehicle and started it up. slapped the gear shift left and then forward to place the trans in M1 and i rolled off out of the parking lot. I got a few feet down the street and pulled the gear shifter back and bamm there is was. It was no longer up shifting when i pulled on the shift knob. Quickly i hit my paddle shifter and then i hit M2 just like i desired. Dang and my warranty just ran up this month.

I have searched the diagrams on getbmwparts.com and i cannot seem to find any switch that may be the culprit. I figured if it is a simple switch then why couldn't i just buy and replace it myself. well this is where i am stuck.

Does anyone know of the part number and approximate location of this defective part? I am ready to go buy it but I'm at a loss at the moment.

thanks in advance.

[rking117]

wow noone?

[ManiacGT]

Wow, yep. No one.

[rking117]

Update: I spoke with a BMW tech and isolated the issue to the gear shifter needing to be replaced. All the sensors are internally located within it. I have purchased one and it has arrived. Waiting to do the install as soon as I can get time. Hope to take down some notes on how its done when i do for those who may be interested. It is hard to believe that no one is having trouble with their Z4s by now and have not had to begin replacing things like these. I hope that i am not the only one contributing their DIY repairs. Please feel free to join in with yours.

[t612]

If your warranty just expired, I would recommend working with your Service Advisor to see if BMW would fix it for you as goodwill. My wife's 535i sprung a leak in the coolant reservoir about two months after our warranty expired. The dealership contacted BMW on our behalf and repaired it at no cost.

[rking117]

Thanks but i already bought the new shifter. 540.00 USD shipped. I just hope that i dont need a special tool to install it.

[paris1]

Enjoying an E89 Z4, F30 320i and Fiat Abarth //
E85 Z4 (sold), E82 128i (sold), Fiat Pop 500 (sold)

Kind of a glutton for punishment, eh?

[Lurcher]

Drove a 500 up in Denver last year and I could hear the chipmunks cussing me out every time I tried to get above 60. Damn that thing was a pig....

[rking117]

Originally Posted by paris1

Enjoying an E89 Z4, F30 320i and Fiat Abarth //
E85 Z4 (sold), E82 128i (sold), Fiat Pop 500 (sold)

Kind of a glutton for punishment, eh?

The Abarth is pretty fast considering. The POP, not so much. Both are now gone. My son has the Abarth in Manchester, so beware of the Hellahorn if you are driving too slow up there. haha

[rking117]

OK OK OK, so I finally got around to replacing the shifter. Like umm months later. Geeze. Why not just wait since i have waited this long you might ask? Well, as it turns out a month or so ago the second sensor went out on it. So when i pull the lever left it wouldnt even read that it was in S1. The good news is that replacing the shifter did fix the entire problem.

Here are a few of the steps that i took to do the replacement. For safety i placed on the parking brake so that at least the right back tire was stationary. Very important since the vehicle will be out of Park while the engine is off at several times during the install. Also note that upon reassembly before you can hook up the shifter cable underneath you have to move the shifter to neutral. even though the vehicle is off you will receive a drivetrain malfunction notice on your indicator. This is normal, it will go away and reset itself upon completion. it happens because the senses tha tyou ar ein neutral but also know the actual transmission is in park. The mismatch causes the drivetrain malfunction. (sorry no photos).

1. Gently pulled up the boot around the shifter. (just clips in)
2. Pulled hard and almost got a black eye when pulling off the shifter knob.
3. Gently pulled up on the shifter surround (just clips in)
4. Gently pulled up on the center console cover working my way around it so as to not break any clips (also clips in)
5. You need to put the gear shifter in neutral now. To do so using your finger press the painted red lever just forward of the gear shift knob to the right and pull the lever to neutral. This is the emergency release lever.
6. No move the console out of the way. (there are several cables attached i did not remove these)
7. Removed three or four cables from the shifter and placed them out of the way.
8. Remove three retaining bolts (used the smallest hex driver i had not sure what T number it is)

That is it from the top. Now i had to jack up the vehicle on the left side and put jack stands under it to perform the rest.

9. Removed like 20 (seems like it anyway, it was more like 8) 10mm bolts that hold up the skid pan
10. Removed skid pan.
11. Loosened 1 1/2 inch (weird that it was standard not metric) bolt that holds the shifter cable tight.

From here I went back into the cabin and was able to gently pull the old shifter out.

To reassemble i followed everything in reverse except for the installing of the shifter cable i left that for last since that is an adjustable part. You will see what im talking about when and if you ever have to do this.

The good thing is the Drivetrain malfunction reset all the trans adaptations. it felt like it was brand new again. I scanned for error codes afterwards and there were none so either it did not store the DT malfunction or it erased itself when the situation corrected. Either way this was a win.

Edited:::
Upon reassembly in step 8 (reinserting the bolts) the bolt furthest forward and right has two holes the bolt can go into. If you place it into the hole furthest forward (which is threaded) it is the wrong hole and will not go in completely. Also it may damage your new shifter since the whole thing is made of plastic and aluminum. So make sure you use the hole that is not threaded on the shifter but is threaded inside the chassis. The simple way to figure it out is to use a flash light and look into the hold before you place the bolt in there. You will clearly see which one it goes into.

[jparnes1]

Nice write up. Where'd you get the diy info? Or did you just wing it?

[rking117]

I had to wing it. Im no stranger to vehicles with simple or complex repairs. I figured this one could take several hours to complete if the trans tunnel was tight and the linkage cable was hidden up in it. But all came together nicely in less than an hour really. The repair and road test took one hour and fifteen minutes total.

I suppose i could have done it faster if i hadn't dazed myself in step two. that took like 5 minutes to recover from. haha

[rking117]

I should have noted that upon reassembly in step 8 (reinserting the bolts) the bolt furthest forward and right has two holes the bolt can go into. If you place it into the hole furthest forward (which is threaded) it is the wrong hole and will not go in completely. Also it may damage your new shifter since the whole thing is made of plastic and aluminum. So make sure you use the hole that is not threaded on the shifter but is threaded inside the chassis. the simple way to figure it out is to use a flash light and look into the hold before you place the bolt in there. You will clearly see which one it goes into. I will edit my previous post so that you have it all in one area.

[cruisingdownthestreet]

what year is your z4?

[rking117]

09

[dblaron30i]

Ok one question I have is can you take a pic of the part you pulled out. I think it is kinda sucky that the shifter isn't serviceable. I can almost bet on it that inside the shifter plastic housing there are off the shelf micro switches. I would love to pull apart one and see to see if we could come up with a cheaper fix. Possibly service it ourselves. Any chance you wanna pull it apart with pics?

[rking117]

Originally Posted by dblaron30i

Ok one question I have is can you take a pic of the part you pulled out. I think it is kinda sucky that the shifter isn't serviceable. I can almost bet on it that inside the shifter plastic housing there are off the shelf micro switches. I would love to pull apart one and see to see if we could come up with a cheaper fix. Possibly service it ourselves. Any chance you wanna pull it apart with pics?

Sorry that part is gone now. Recycled some time ago. Being mostly an electronics guy i though the same thing. So i pulled the console and looked around. They have the thing so tightly engineered and pressed and molded together it would be impossible to disassemble and reassemble and still work. Trust me if i thought that it was possible to replace a switch i would have.the thought of paying 550$ for an entire gear shifter when i know the failed part was likely .25 sickens me.

[ljkiter]

Good job mate!

[dblaron30i]

Originally Posted by rking117

Sorry that part is gone now. Recycled some time ago. Being mostly an electronics guy i though the same thing. So i pulled the console and looked around. They have the thing so tightly engineered and pressed and molded together it would be impossible to disassemble and reassemble and still work. Trust me if i thought that it was possible to replace a switch i would have.the thought of paying 550$ for an entire gear shifter when i know the failed part was likely .25 sickens me.

Man that really does suck. On my Porsche I was even able to replace that part. Same type of issue. Yet theirs wasn't engineered and plastic pressed. Bummer. Well at least we know for the future.