smoother shifting?

[smokey+]

hi,

i've had a 86 535i for about a year. the shifting has always been a little "notchy" - i tried putting some grease in the ball joint thing the shifter arm turns into under the leather cover. that sorta helped. wondering what else can help?

also got a new rubber booty thing that goes under there. but my ashtray has a light and the wire for that (i think) goes down thru that hole too. the rubber booty doesn't have a hole in it for that. are you supposed to cut one in it? it makes 3 gear kind hard to get into cause the wire is jammed in there with the rubber booty.

best.

[jimoreno]

The ashtray light wire shouldn't be going "down". Maybe that is the reverse switch wire and it could be on the wrong spot. The other that you can try is changing the fluid to Redline MTL. I've only heard good things about it and I'm planning on doing that (along with a diff oil change too) when the weather gets warmer!

Good Luck!

[smokey+]

yes. i'm not sure what that wire is for. reverse gear sounds good. it's just kinda in the way. i saw a diagram somewhere that showed the shift booty with a hole in it for the wire to go thru so it's more out of the way. the one i bought didn't have a hole in it.

maybe it's just an aftermarket thing and i'm supposed to make a hole?

let me know how the redline goes for you. i've seen a gazllion posts about that too. i just figured transmission fluid is transmission fluid. a receipt for bmw shop repairs (came with the car) says the transmission fluid was flushed and replaced with amsoil in 2002.

now for my other project. getting the sunroof to work for this summer...