draze

Hello,

My shifter or shift knob on the 6speed C230K coupe is pretty loose. When I stop at the light the shifter shakes. There's also lots of play. Sometimes I have to literary force it into first. I also have a small piece of leather ripped of from the knob itself, so I want to change it.

Now, I know I want to replace the shift knob and the leather, because of the rip, but will it fix the wobbliness of the shifter itself, or do i have to buy some kind of bushing?

Midnight Koop

where do you live? mine sometimes sticks when i put it into first, but only when its cold outside. i've talked to other members and to my understanding this is just because of a poorly designed gearbox. it doesn't do this during the summer though.

draze

Canada, South Ontario. It's not cold at all right now.

Emin

Im not too sure, but I dont think the ripped leather would cause noticeable shaking

tommy

Mercedes would call the wobbliness a "design feature".

I wouldn't expect anything to be fixed by replacing the knob and leather other than cosmetic improvements.

BTW - since you are replacing the boot and knob, you might want to think about non-OEM options - there are many others out there that are better weighted, would sit lower, and feel much better in your hand. So, think about that before heading off to the dealership.

Midnight Koop

do you suggest any? i'm passively looking too

tommy

I've probably spent over $1k on knobs, boots, and so forth over the years, if you can believe it.

Started out with a Renntech - that pretty much sucked, and at $200, was a total ripoff for a silver painted plastic knob, though it did integrate with the boot perfectly. Looked at Brabus, but that's too big for what I want.

In the process, I broke the surround that goes around the base of the boot, then was told by my local dealership that you have to order the entire assembly just for the surround, and at $400, didn't want to do it.

Then went from a Sparco Racer, to a couple of Momo knobs, then back to another Racer (love how small it is, it's smurfy, and sits very low - what's not to love?), and finally recently got another Racer when the threads that the set screws go into stripped on my last one (if you go non-integratable aftermarket, never take the set screws totally out - the threads generally do have a tendency to strip). I would have tried a Spoon duracon like I have in the CRX, but thought it was a little too Japanese for the ccoupe, plus you do need a bit of a lip on the knob for lifting the knob to get it into reverse on the manny.

So, to mate with the Sparco, I've got an alcantara charcoal boot with silver stitching that I picked up from Lightning Automotive (just chose a 92-95 civic one short shift option, so that the boot's fairly low), and a gaited shifter surround from Simoni that is made for the ccoupe's curves, which I drilled into the Designo Mystic Blue trim that I had ordered from Steve several years ago.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...

maverik259

PICS geez!

CoupeCrazy03

Im using a momo race shift knob and momo performance shift boot and I have to say the feel is a bit more solid than the oem stuff. Momo imo makes some of the better knobs in my experience. Here is a pic, kinda not the focus of the picture but the my setup is in the pic lol.

tommy

Well, since you asked so nicely:


Ok, the mystic blue trim doesn't show up too well on there, unfortunately, but it's a silvery blue.

What you can see in the pic:
overall leather done by Classic Soft Trim ($1,600)
Recaro Sport driver's seat in alcantara/cloth
Simoni shift surround
Sparco Racer knob
Lightning Auto alcantara boot
Second gen armrest, covered in charcoal alcantara (I posted a thread about the install, which I'm surprised no one ever replied to, even though the subject of swapping out armrests was one that had never been covered - anyway, I digress)
Brabus steering wheel
Scangauge II I mounted in ashtray area (good for clearing the P0420 code, which pops up in summertime pretty often - doesn't like aftermarket cat)
Sirius radio receiver (bought it for Howard, now end up listening to First Wave most of the time, and Car Talk on NPR on weekends)
iPhone holder above Sirius radio
Cocomats, which I really like - they don't move at all

See if you can count the different shades of smurfy blue - winner gets a mattig grille

draze

Two questions:

1) Do you have to change the leather boot for the aftermarket knob?
2) What about the wobbliness, I want it stiff and as precise as possible. Don't care about short shifter, but if that's what it takes....

CoupeCrazy03

Yeah you do have to change the boot for an aftermarket knob. There are no kits to my knowledge that will make the wobble go away . . . may have to go custom.

lars

Going back to the original question, my guess is that there's something wrong with your shift linkage, the bits under the car and outside the gearbox.