# sticking gearstick is concerning me



## mystic_528 (Jun 1, 2003)

i picked up my 528 e39 2 weeks ago , 72k and 96P , i was having trouble with the gearstick sticking when bringing it out of 5th gear . 
Its starting to worry me now , it seems when everything is cold its worse and as the cars warms up it gets a tad less sticky but still bad . 
I had it over at the dealers repair center the other day for the service manager to look at and as it was warmed up the gearstick was only stiff and not actually stickign to the right , so even althought theres an obvious problem he told me that his judement on the road test was that this was something they would not repair . 
Now i went out today and fiddled around and if i move the gearstick to the right it stays there and if i try and help it back to the centre it just will not spring to centre so its guess work when you are in line with 3rd&4rth gear . After it warms up it does spring back to the center with a bit of a helping hand and the warmer it gets then it springs back to center but it is stiff stiff to move gearstick to the right and it feels notchy too . It has no problems going into gear . 

I have now got to the stage the dealer (non bmw) is driving my patience and has no intention of repairing this and im getting really angry and im losing my patience . However by the time i drive the car to them the sticking gearstick is not as bad as it could be but even although it should be repaired they refuse to do anything about it . 

I think my next move is to get an assesment done on the problem by my local bmw garage then write a letter to the dealer i bought the car froma nd tell him i am rejecting the car and want a refund . I paid £9500 for this car and this problem is in no way acceptable but they just give me the same crap excuse wear and tear as its 6 1/2 years old. 

Anyone shed any light on this problem or am i the only one unlucky enough whos car suffers from this problem ?


----------



## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

Sticking gearshifts could be a couple of things:

(1) There are two points or joints that could be an issue: one is where the shifter mates with the linkeage (basically a stiff metal bar that connects the shifter to the transmission) and the other is where the linkeage mates with the transmission. Either one of these points is the most likely culprit for sticky shifting. It could be gunk build-up or loose clips.

(2) It could be something inside the transmission and my level of knowledge ends there.

You could lift the car and inspect the shift linkeage visually and see if you noticed anything. Maybe spray some carb cleaner or other degreaser on there and wire brush it a bit.

Good luck with your dealer problems...sorry you are having such headaches.


----------

