1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Shift cable lube

Can you even lube them?

I may pull this are apart come Sat to take a look and see if I have any damage. Ran with a header that put a lot of heat in the area for a while and shigting can be difficult. Want to check and see if any damage was done to the joints and if the cable can be lubed.

 

If there’s squeaking more than likely it is from the shift stick’s pivot ball, or the stick end is rubbing on the side of the box underneath, or the dust cover has come loose. The collet over the pivot ball is a bit tricky to disengage because all three retaining tabs have to be un-clipped at the same time. It’s something that needs to be greased periodically and it does make a difference. I attempted to lubricate my early model cables, but it had no effect on shifting effort. The cables became set in their shape over time causing a slight kink. Just replace the cables and enjoy that new car feeling. This may help you in your exploration. [ame=http://www.lonestarminiclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603]Shifter Cables Install - Lone Star Mini Club Forums[/ame]

 

I have had people try to lube them before, but they are very long and you have a very hard time getting the lube all the way thru, if at all. And the squeak is coming from the the cables. The grease in them has dried out and it is not working the way it should any more. They are about 95 dollars each, and it's best to just replace them and be done with it.

Chad
Detroit Tuned

 

Shift cables were closer to $70 each at Classic in Ohio, FYI. And just a warning to anyone ordering new ones in the 03-04 year range: be very careful which part you order. I thought I was very careful and still ended up with the wrong part.


Notice that there is an "A" shift box and a "B" shift box. I ordered the cables associated with the "B" box, because that's the box I have, and still the cable didn't fit. Since I was replacing these due to broken bushings at the trans and wanted a running car, I ended up pressing the bushing out of the new cable (18mm socket and a rubber mallet over the 36mm oil filter socket worked nicely, though did damage the shaft of the cable I wasn't going to be able to use), dremeling out what was left of the old bushing in the old cable, pushing in the new bushing and moving on with life.

Huge PITA, but I wasn't prepared to wait another week and a half for parts without a running car.

 

Grab both sides and pull up.. so far as I know. Mine came up (many times) with very little effort and none of the clips have broken yet.