OK so I have a serious question here:

Is it true that the 2013 Mini Coopers' shift ***** are STITCHED on to the shift boot? I spent a good hour or more trying to mess with the old shift **** to get it off but to my dismay I have been unable to do it. I have searched all over NAM, Google and my own brain to find no answers on how to do this. I saw a detailed run-down from Redline Goods and a few others BUT it doesn't apply to my situation because the 2013 models are STITCHED!

Please tell me there is a better way to do this than cut the stitches on the shift boot! Please!!!!

 

Caveat: I have a 2/2012 build MCS, not a 2013. It *looked* stitched on, but wasn't.

Can you provide a nice close-up of where the **** meets the boot? That would confirm that it is like my 2012 was.

If it's similar, what worked on my 2012 to remove it:

a) Pop the **** off the shift lever. There are some posts / YouTubes that show this...describing straddling the center, giving a sharp tug with both hands, and so on. I used one hand and it was firm, but popped off. DON'T keep yanking after it pops off, you'll tear the boot out of the console. At this point, the **** is off the shifter, but still attached to the boot. The boot had enough material to allow this.

b) Remove the **** from the boot. The shift **** has a nylon extension that fits inside a nylon-reinforced sleeve in the top of the boot. I used a butter knife to slip between the bottom of the shift **** and the top of the boot, then twisted the knife to separate them.

Done.

 

^ So I tried to use a butter knife in the fashion you described and it didn't work for me. I am not sure what I want to do with this situation. I can either return the shift **** I bought and be stuck with the stock shift ****, I can try to take the stitching out and try to stitch it back on my own (might not be a good idea!) or I can try to replace the shift boot as well and in this case I would have a custom boot/shift **** combo and I would not have to worry about stitching anything, although I am not sure about combining different shift boots + *****. Kind of leaves me between a rock and hard place. Maybe I can take it to a local shop and see if they can just do it for me if I give them some cash. Did not realize changing a shift **** would be this difficult; the videos showed to just pop it off but this year its STITCHED on! Why!?? Ugh

 

So it is definitely stitched on?? If so, that's the first I've heard of that.
What a bad idea!

 

Did you detach the shift boot from the console? If you did, you can remove the **** and boot together, and flip the boot inside out and really see how it is attached to the ****. From a manufacturing and assembly standpoint, it doesn't make sense that the attachment would be accomplished using stitching.

To remove the shift boot, see this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...fter-boot.html

 

So with the aid of my laziness in returning the MOMO ****, the aid of the users here and the aid of my brother I was able to get the **** on!

Thanks

I attached pictures of the **** in the attachments, looks pretty good and feels nice too.

Ended up being not STITCHED but rather a weak glue was used to hold the shift boot together with the shift ****. Don't ask exactly how I did it, I took out the whole console, then took the shift boot itself off that console then played with all the involved pieces until it finally came off. Traumatized forever now haha