X3 E83 Sloppy manual gear stick.

[G-uNIT]

Hi, recently brought the vehicle and seems that there is a lot of play in the gear stick, i can only describe this as being long throw when changing gears.
It has no problems selecting gears and no crunching or noises, drives fine but when in gear theirs a lot of play and the stick seams to just float not rigid.

Can someone please help????.

[StuBeeDoo]

The shift linkage will be worn.  I'm not sure how easy it is to do on an E83.  I've only done the job on an E30 and an E46.

IIRC both were awkward to do, but well worth the effort.

Even with everything in the linkage brand new, there will still be a small amount of play in the lever because gearbox internals will be worn.

[X5Sport]

This set of pages may tell you what is needed to replace parts of the shift mechanism...

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e83- ... nsmission/

You didn’t say which version you have so I picked a 20d manual at random.

[Steve-X3]

Hi,

Sound just like how mine was.  I pulled up the shift lever gaiter and the plastic bush had popped up. I simply pushed it back down and it clicked back into place. Shift change is a world better now.
The part is just a tenner if you need to replace it.

Cheers