Short Shifter

[saeedg48]

Hey guys, I was thinking about a short shifter as one of my first mods on the M3. After talking to evosport about the various mods. They have me a true believer in the system. Except I've never drove an M3 w/t a short shifter. I spoke to my friend who previously owned a heavily modified E46 M3 and said that the M3 Short Shifter Kit was the first and best mod he got.
-So do I get one? Has anyone owned one in the past? How are the shifts from 1>2? Idk should I do it?
It's going to cost me $600+ after all the labor.

[!Xoible]

im not longer a fan of ssk's.. im paranoid of gear grinding, easier to happen with a aftermarket ssk. however the m3 shifter is not ideal...

[Eurotrash8]

Originally Posted by !Xoible

im not longer a fan of ssk's.. im paranoid of gear grinding, easier to happen with a aftermarket ssk. however the m3 shifter is not ideal...

I'm not sure where you're getting this info from but that has no relevance and makes zero sense.

To the OP Ive had a UUC in my E46 M and it was great. The gear changes were very solid and enabled you to shift harder/faster with almost zero "slop".
When in any gear if you pushed all the way in that gear it felt as though there was a solid stop whereas the stock felt mushy/sloppy. I will be doing the Rogue in the spring.

[!Xoible]

Originally Posted by Eurotrash8

I'm not sure where you're getting this info from but that has no relevance and makes zero sense.

To the OP Ive had a UUC in my E46 M and it was great. The gear changes were very solid and enabled you to shift harder/faster with almost zero "slop".
When in any gear if you pushed all the way in that gear it felt as though there was a solid stop whereas the stock felt mushy/sloppy. I will be doing the Rogue in the spring.

what info? i just said i am paranoid dude.. having a shifter makes it easier to "force" shifter into gear... i make that mistake and hence my comment.

edit: maybe im wrong.. a quick google makes me think i dont make sense lol

[hogwild]

The Rogue SSK is excellent! Use the search to find more great reviews! Tom at EAS is a great guy to start with!

[J08M3]

Originally Posted by !Xoible

im not longer a fan of ssk's.. im paranoid of gear grinding, easier to happen with a aftermarket ssk. however the m3 shifter is not ideal...

I disagree with this statement. Every since I put my RE ssk in I find it much easier to avoid gear grinding. It provides a much more precise feel through the shifter and makes the gear changes feel much more accurate.

OP, it's cool, I like my SSK. It's not necessary, nor would I say it's the best mod, it's a change from OEM and it is nice though. If I had to choose best mod it would be my exhaust, just cause I love the sound from it. If you only want to spend about $600 a SSK is probably your best choice for a mod. I would certainly choose it over any similarly priced engine mod. Only other nice mods in that price range I can think of now would be a front reflector delete or a set of springs.

[DevJ]

Go with Rogue..If I had to do it again I would go with them.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by !Xoible

im not longer a fan of ssk's.. im paranoid of gear grinding, easier to happen with a aftermarket ssk.

According with both BMW and Porsche is easier to happen with an SSK indeed, and that's why both manufacturers no longer offer a factory SSK option. And the fact an SSK voids the transmission's warranty (ask if you don't believe me) makes it true. They obviously had a high number of warranty claims that forced them to take that action.

Having said that, nobody knows how tighter those factory SSK's were. It's not the same having an SSK 10% tighter than stock than 50%. In theory, even 1% tighter would make it an SSK, right? The more aggressive they are, the more prone to grinding. And yes, there's always going to be people who find them less prone to grinding, but they're a minority. However, the real issue IMO is an SSK is associated with quick shifting, and THAT is the main root cause of grinding IMO, not the shifter itself. With the shorter/heavier ZHP knob, I find shifting my manual M3 almost perfect, but I don't race/track my car. And no, no shifter is going to be perfect, so the way it is now is as perfect as it's going to get for me. An SSK has many drawbacks I don't want to deal with, the main one being sacrificing tranny warranty (and yes, a dealer would know you had an SSK installed even if you put the stock shifter back). A matter of personal preference and risk taking. Take care.

[!Xoible]

Originally Posted by J08M3

I disagree with this statement. Every since I put my RE ssk in I find it much easier to avoid gear grinding. It provides a much more precise feel through the shifter and makes the gear changes feel much more accurate.

OP, it's cool, I like my SSK. It's not necessary, nor would I say it's the best mod, it's a change from OEM and it is nice though. If I had to choose best mod it would be my exhaust, just cause I love the sound from it. If you only want to spend about $600 a SSK is probably your best choice for a mod. I would certainly choose it over any similarly priced engine mod. Only other nice mods in that price range I can think of now would be a front reflector delete or a set of springs.

that's cool, Rogue spent more than a year in development. i even talked to the owner and he explained to me the amount of R&D he put in it. it's a "fact" that forcing shifter into gear will, on the long run, result in gear grinding. an ssk helps with making the person develop less of a feeling of whether they're forcing gear or not, but if it's engineered well then sure be my guest! fyi it doesnt take much to "force" a gear in, most of the time people dont pay attention to it, but happens in the long run. just my opinion.

edit: and honestly after seeing what it takes to get a ssk installed (i bought uuc and needed to remove the exhaust) i thought it's not worth it anymore. so im not too crazy about ssk's anymore

[H Bomb]

i have the RE one in my car and love it. do some searches you can find some reviews of it. i wouldn't get the UUC one, i had one in the past and thought it was junk and alot of people on here have it and don't like it.

Autosolutions will be coming out with one or its out but i haven't seen any feedback on it yet

[J08M3]

Originally Posted by !Xoible

t's a "fact" that forcing shifter into gear will, on the long run, result in gear grinding.

I agree with this. Now of course this is just my opinion based on my experience with the RE SSK, but I actually find it harder to force the car into gear if you're not perfectly aligned than it is with the OEM shifter. I find the RE SSK forces me to be a little more precise and pay closer attention to what I'm doing while shifting gears.

The RE really isn't much shorter of a shift at all. I think RE claims 30% but it doesn't feel that way to me. I haven't tried the AA or any other ones. The RE is just slightly shorter, but I guess they way it's made it feels much more rigid and more accurate while shifting gears.

Anyway, I like my SSK. Would I do it again if I bought another E9x M3? Maybe... I'm 50/50 on it. No regrets putting this one in, it's nice. If you want to do some mods, and relatively inexpensive ones this is a fun one. But again it's far from a necessary upgrade.

[MrHarris]

I have the UUC with DSSR but after the trouble I went through I'd much rather go with the Rogue. I felt it at EAS and it was solid, just like my RE SSK in my old e46. Amazing shifter... makes my current E92 feel terrible in comparison.

[2000gsr]

Originally Posted by saeedg48

Hey guys, I was thinking about a short shifter as one of my first mods on the M3. After talking to evosport about the various mods. They have me a true believer in the system. Except I've never drove an M3 w/t a short shifter. I spoke to my friend who previously owned a heavily modified E46 M3 and said that the M3 Short Shifter Kit was the first and best mod he got.
-So do I get one? Has anyone owned one in the past? How are the shifts from 1>2? Idk should I do it?
It's going to cost me $600+ after all the labor.

Not worth it in my opinion. Yes throws are shorter, but not any smoother, 1st to 2nd gear notch is still there. If I could turn things around I wouldn't have got it. I had a short shifter on my integra for around a 100 bucks and that was worth it. It was good because the honda transmission was waaaaaaay smoother than this m3 to begin with. For $600 bucks, definately not worth it.

[michaeldorian]

Originally Posted by 2000gsr

Not worth it in my opinion. Yes throws are shorter, but not any smoother, 1st to 2nd gear notch is still there. If I could turn things around I wouldn't have got it. I had a short shifter on my integra for around a 100 bucks and that was worth it. It was good because the honda transmission was waaaaaaay smoother than this m3 to begin with. For $600 bucks, definately not worth it.

Did you get the Rogue Shifter?

[michaeldorian]

Originally Posted by 2000gsr

Not worth it in my opinion. Yes throws are shorter, but not any smoother, 1st to 2nd gear notch is still there. If I could turn things around I wouldn't have got it. I had a short shifter on my integra for around a 100 bucks and that was worth it. It was good because the honda transmission was waaaaaaay smoother than this m3 to begin with. For $600 bucks, definately not worth it.

Would you say it's the same as stock in smoothness or worst? I'm hearing 2 sides to this SSK story. Definitely seems like a love or hate thing. No middle ground.

[H Bomb]

i have the RE SSK. it is def more precise and tighter then oem. i like that, maybe some people don't. to me that is the feeling it should have had stock. i would say it is no less smooth then before. i have no problem making nice smooth shifts

Originally Posted by michaeldorian

Would you say it's the same as stock in smoothness or worst? I'm hearing 2 sides to this SSK story. Definitely seems like a love or hate thing. No middle ground.

[michaeldorian]

Originally Posted by H Bomb

i have the RE SSK. it is def more precise and tighter then oem. i like that, maybe some people don't. to me that is the feeling it should have had stock. i would say it is no less smooth then before. i have no problem making nice smooth shifts

Thanks for your feedback. Is it noticeable shorter in throw?

[markjord]

Originally Posted by J08M3

IIf I had to choose best mod it would be my exhaust, just cause I love the sound from it. .

Which exhaust did you go for?

[J08M3]

Originally Posted by markjord

Which exhaust did you go for?

Right now I have full Fabspeed xpipe with HFC connecting to AA mufflers.

[2000gsr]

Originally Posted by michaeldorian

Would you say it's the same as stock in smoothness or worst? I'm hearing 2 sides to this SSK story. Definitely seems like a love or hate thing. No middle ground.

I have the uuc ssk with dssr, I don't think it matters which ssk you have, the bmw transmission is the bmw transmission, replacing the shift stick is not going to make anything smoother(smoothness is same as stock), if so please explain how? Its definately not a hate thing but is it really worth the money?? I personally don't think so.

[J08M3]

Originally Posted by michaeldorian

Would you say it's the same as stock in smoothness or worst? I'm hearing 2 sides to this SSK story. Definitely seems like a love or hate thing. No middle ground.

Pretty sure my opinion was middle ground. Hence the 50/50 feeling about doing it again.

[MMMorish]

Originally Posted by michaeldorian

Would you say it's the same as stock in smoothness or worst? I'm hearing 2 sides to this SSK story. Definitely seems like a love or hate thing. No middle ground.

I'd say that before it's worked in, the notchiness is a bit worse than stock. After about 200-300km when the SSK has worked in, it is a bit less notchy, but definitely better than stock in terms of precise shifting.

I have the UUC SSK with DSSR in my car. It's actually a lot smoother than stock. If I had to do it again though, I'd do just the UUC SSK with no DSSR. The UUC is a wonderful shifter and super precise. The DSSR didn't work as expected and I had to have my shop modify it to get it right. I would definitely get the UUC SSK only again.

I have one for sale right now in the for sale section. PM me to discuss further.
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329016