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      01-13-2022, 06:20 AM   #1
ahhsze
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manual transmission fault?

Shifter lever suddenly lost it’s ‘springiness’

Dear fellow Z4 owners,

I would like to request you expertise please, maybe you can help me pinpointing what could be the problem.

I have a 2009 E89 with manual transmission ( Getrag GS6-17BG), and all of a sudden, my shifter lever not centering itself (from any direction) and putting in reverse has lost it’s extra spring tension as well. Now, it’s real easy to shift to reverse instead of the first gear, and also really hard to find any of the gears, the shifter lever just wiggles left-to-right. Shifting itself could be done.

I’m sure it’s not the famous 5th/6th gear lean, so it’s not the problem with the detent pins inside the tranny.
My suspicion that the return spring or lever inside the tranny got broken (see attached video from 1:00)



Any help is really appreciated!
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      01-14-2022, 08:23 AM   #2
Eltee
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I had the same issue with my 2009 when it was almost 4 years old but still under warranty. BMW insisted that they replace the whole transmission. I obviously quizzed them at length as to why they couldn't just repair the what i called the spring mechanism. They had no answer for me so I got a new tranny but had to wait 8 weeks for the repair, during prime summer driving time.
So that was 8 years ago, I would hope that there is a simpler fix available now.
I hope you can find a decent solution Lot's of people on this site that are very knowledgeable.
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      01-17-2022, 03:38 AM   #3
ahhsze
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eltee View Post
I had the same issue with my 2009 when it was almost 4 years old but still under warranty. BMW insisted that they replace the whole transmission. I obviously quizzed them at length as to why they couldn't just repair the what i called the spring mechanism. They had no answer for me so I got a new tranny but had to wait 8 weeks for the repair, during prime summer driving time.
So that was 8 years ago, I would hope that there is a simpler fix available now.
I hope you can find a decent solution Lot's of people on this site that are very knowledgeable.
Hi Eltee,

Thanks a lot for the good wishes. I feel you, I am trying to solve it for the driving season. I know that these guys here have a lot of experience, but unfortunately I didn't find anything related to this problem in the internet. Seems like a one from a thousand issue. Anyway, I have an appointment at my indie, we will get out the tranny and an expert will disassemble it and hopefully he could also replace the spring mechanism from an another one. Worst case scenario I found some second hand trannys, but I've been told by BMW, that this tranny comes a lot of sub-types, for example GS6-17BG-TAPW and TAE4 etc, and the gear ratio is different, so might be not compatible with my differential mechanic.
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      01-17-2022, 04:28 PM   #4
bigendbob
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Pull the trim off around the gear lever, then insulation underneath.
See if the the nylon bush the ball sits in is lose or the arm it attaches to is wobbly. Just look Youtube for gear lever bearing replacement to see mechanism.
Mechanism is common on lots of BMW's.
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      01-18-2022, 05:50 AM   #5
ahhsze
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bigendbob View Post
Pull the trim off around the gear lever, then insulation underneath.
See if the the nylon bush the ball sits in is lose or the arm it attaches to is wobbly. Just look Youtube for gear lever bearing replacement to see mechanism.
Mechanism is common on lots of BMW's.
Hi Bigendbob,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion, I will have a look on that also, but to be honest, I doubt that this is the root cause of my problem. The shifter lever itself seems to be intact, and precise, and this bearing doesn't explain e.g.: why my reverse gear lost it's needed extra tension when selecting this specific gear (pulling hard to the left should have an extra spring stage, to select the reverse)
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      04-26-2023, 07:12 PM   #6
hxi1348
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Hi ahhsze,

My 2009 BMW Z4 is having the exact same issue. My mechanic is telling me that I need to replace the entire transmission. Can I ask what you ended up doing with your car? Thanks!
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      04-27-2023, 11:01 AM   #7
Tangent
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Sounds like the exact same not-uncommon issue I had with my E46. I replaced the equivalent parts in this diagram and it fixed the issue. Only one of them was the cause of the problem but parts are cheap and the inconvenience is high since the trans needs to come out so I did them all.
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      04-27-2023, 01:58 PM   #8
hxi1348
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tangent View Post
Sounds like the exact same not-uncommon issue I had with my E46. I replaced the equivalent parts in this diagram and it fixed the issue. Only one of them was the cause of the problem but parts are cheap and the inconvenience is high since the trans needs to come out so I did them all.
Hi Tangent, thanks for responding. I feel no detent on Reverse AND 5/6 gear. From the diagram and video I see that one spring each controls those detents. If one spring fails then it causes both to stop working? I thought that if one fails, then at least I should still feel something from the other no?
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      04-27-2023, 02:13 PM   #9
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It would be quite the coincidence to have both fail at once. That said when one of them failed in my E46 the shifter also totally failed to center itself and finding the right gear was a real challenge but I'm not positive anymore if both reverse and 5th detents were gone. It for sure felt really weird since nothing was holding it centered like it should.

At this point I'd personally order all those parts and pull the trans. Once those parts are replaced you'll be able to feel if the shifting has changed before reinstalling the trans. If it's fixed you're good to go; if not the trans needed to come out for a rebuild anyway and at least you'll have already taken care of a small part of that.

If you're not on a tight budget it would also be a great time to replace the clutch and rear main seal since a lot of the expense of those jobs is the labor. Replace the clutch fork pivot pin with the bronze version like this whilte you're at it.
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