gear lever not centring

[Timvw]

Hi

New to the BMW forum but have a question I'm hoping you can help with before I need to revert to a dealer.

I have a 2000 m/y E46 328 touring and the gearlever has recently stopped centring i.e the centring force keeps it hard to the offside.

Can anyone advise how the pressure for centring is applied?

Is this likely to be an issue with the gearbox internals, or, is there a spring or counterweight on the linkage somewhere that may need replacing or lubricating?

Thanks

Tim

[doodlebug]

Mine does the same when it is cold although it is OK after it has warmed up a bit. It's been like that since I bought the car. BMW wouldn't repair it under warranty because "We could find nothing wrong with it, sir". Checked other BMW forums and found out it is a gearbox out and strip down job.

Thieving muppets.

[chaosss]

Happened on 2 of my E36 328's.

Wouldn't centre when cold but after a few miles it would correct itself. Never had it fixed and didn't seem to affect performance or anything.

[phelix]

There are spring-loaded pistons that provide the self centring and the pistons distort slightly with time. The parts are quite cheap but unfortunately it's a gearbox out job. Send me a PH email and I'll forward you an article on the fix.

My 99 E46 328i is still in the household; it was mine from new. I started to have this problem and the "fix" was not to use 5th until the box was warmed up or I was on the motorway and there was little chance I needed to downshift until after the box was warmed up.

About 2 years ago I changed the gearbox oil to Redline MTL and the problem went away. Car now has 126K miles and is still going strong.