Making E90 manual gearbox looser

[to3m]

Moving the gear lever from the 3rd/4th column to the 1st/2nd column has always been a bit stiff in my car. This has so far been only mildly annoying, but perhaps the effects of making this movement have been mounting up over time; I've been doing a bit more driving recently, and I'm finding using 1st/2nd is becoming painful.

Is there anything that can be done to loosen the gearbox up?

[BFleming]

There are only 2 things you can really do with the gearbox in-situ - a transmission oil change, and greasing the linkages (in particular the nylon socket at the base of the gearstick). Both straightforward, but don't expect miracles.
The other alternative is to fit a longer gearlever (from the many available from BMW models over the years). This is an outdated picture, but you can see the varying amount of leverage you get using different levers from different models:

[naturalaspiration]

I used to have a very notchy gear changes in my E39, and gearbox used to chattier loudly at idle. Changed oil and added Ceratec. Transformed the gear changes and the noise at idle has all but disappeared.

[Sardonicus]

Change the trans oil this often improves the shift behavior BMW will tell you the oil is for life but thats bks also make sure the linkages are A1 they are not known for longevity on previous cars you could then play around with the gear lever/stick ratio's like kindly posted above if your still not happy , I run a racing short shifter kit with harder bushings because I hate the long throw and vagueness on this system that I dont believe a RWD car should possess but that wouldn't suite you I am certain

Edited by Sardonicus on Wednesday 31st July 12:58