I finally found a fix for the bad bushing in the shifter arm. Mini doesn't sell it but Ford does sell an identical bushing made for the ford focus SVT which coincidentally has the same transmission.

Only for early style shifter assemblys made prior to 2004.

Nice find!

Yeah I broke the one that came with my Megan short shifter and the original one is garbage.

the part number on that is 97ZZ-7335-AA right? how much? ford is right down the street from me. and did you get one or two?

Yes that's the part number. Comes with 1 bushing for 14$. I also ordered the same one from eBay a bit cheaper. In the pic the yucky looking one on the left is the original bushing.

Good find but 14 bucks? Ouch!

///Me

Unfortunately its a dealer only item. Even the ebay one was from a dealership.

do you need two? one for the horizontal post and one for the vertical post?

Hmm. I dont recall seeing that when I took apart my shifter box to install the SSK. Anyone have a photo showing where it goes?

You only need one and it goes inside the arm on the side of the shifter assembly. Snaps on the shifter itself.

A buddy's R53 shifter lost the defined knotch betwwen first & reverse. To the point of inadvertent engaging reverse instead of 1st gear at times. Is this the kind of slop you felt w/ yours?

Mine just had a lot of side to side movement while in gear. Its possible that it just hadn't reach that point like your friends mini.

Makes sense. $14 trial isn't bad at all. Thanks, Q.

It should be noted that this is NOT for the facelift cars with the newer style shift box. It does not work on my 06.



I have one of these bushings if anyone is looking to buy it :D.

The newer style started in 2004 I believe.

I know. You should put an edit on your original post for anyone who uses this as future reference that it only will fit the metal shifter brackets, not the revised box with the plastic one.

Here are the two versions. This works for the type "b" version.

Attachment 83572

Is there any fix for the face-lift ones?

I played around with mine after I had everything apart realizing the hard way this bushing doesn't work on ours lol. There are these little plastic washers that seem to wear out, but BMW doesn't sell them...obviously :roll:. Going to have to spend some time in the hardware department, or see if I can have someone make them.

you can probably get some teflon rod stock and make a few of those spacers/ washers for your face lift style.

How about the bushing that snaps around the ball? Looks alot like BMW ones, I wonder if a BMW part would fit?

Do you have to get underneath the car to replace this bushing?

I have left-right play in the shifter while in gear, not bugging me right now, but if it's an easy fix from inside the car, will switch em out

Don't think so. They look like little hats, its a washer with a cylinder going into the shifter box on each side. I'll figure out something.

No you don't. Unplug the seat heater switches, pull up boot, 4 Phillips head screws and lift the whole console up. Can be tricky getting the new one in though. Put some metal between the arm and the shifter base and then use a hammer tap it in.

Sweet! Thanks, will get one and give it a whirl. Will be nice not to have the play while in gear as I usually leave my hand on the stick - probably why it's bust in the first place :grin: