Something weird is going on with my SS...
 

I have an 03 P5 and i just installed a B&M SS last week. Today when i was driving, all of a sudden the shifter went kinda limp, like when i put it in neutral and slap the stick, normally it would bounce back to normal position, but now it just kinda stays where i slap it. It still engages fine and everything, and i went underneath the car and looked around and everything seems fine.
After i looked around and made sure everything was tight, it seemed to work fine again, but after about 30 mintues of driving it was limp again....
I don't know if 03s are different from ohter years, but me and my freidn had a HELL of a time getting the shifter into the little slot that it goes into. It wouldnt go all the way down into where it was supposed to. The instructions said 'insert" but me and my friend literally had to put about 300 lbs of force on the stick to finally get it to pop into place.
Please help! Thanks!

I didn't reinstall the bushings. The problem seems heat-related since it gets all limp after a certain amount of time. Should i look at the bushings again?

the man is refering to the bushings that go in the BOTTOM of the shifter...where the bolt goes through....I can assume.....if you didn't put those in the holes so that the bolt fits nice and snug....well you need to.

I too have the B&M, but have not had your problem....but the description you give is confusing...you say it goes LIMP...but yet you say it stays where ever you put it...to me limp would mean LOOSE...and wobbly....not snug and stiff which is what I would think it would feel like if you slap it around and it stays there....it sounds like you have some sort of binding going on.

Yeah, i was talking about those same bushings....I'll check em out next weekend but im pretty sure they are done right.

Like when i mean limp, i mean it doesnt spring back to the normal "straight up" position for neutral. Try hitting your shifter to the left or right and let go, and it will go back to the straight up position. Mine just stays to the left or right without springing back to normal.
Any more suggestions? I was thinking maybe a lube problem inside the shifter?

By the way, theMAN, where is the how-to? I remember seeing it a while ago but i forgot where to find it :P

did you dimple your heat shield? actually bend it down to make more clearance for the shifter? or have you removed your heatshield because you installed a cat back exhaust?

if your heat sheild is still in place...and you didn't bend it down for more clearance....the shifter could be hanging up in the heat shield.

I did put the bushings back on....and i did bend the heat shield....

i just remembered that when we were installing the SS, a couple of small tears got into the dust boot because i think we twisted the shifter around a couple times. do you think dust got in and is screwing with the grease?
Another thing, since i guess i didnt put enough grease (that would explain the 300 lbs of force) i can't really remove the shifter...any suggestions?

Thanks theMan!

BTW, i used the installation guide that came with the shifter....

Hmmmm, you say you slap your stick and it goes limp? I don't know but that sounds like a personal problem!!.........jk:D

What is the mechanism that springs the shifter to vertical alignment with 3rd and 4th gear? Is it a spring, the rubber boot, or the transmission linkage itself?

TheMAN is a human workshop manual! This guy knows virtually everything about our cars.

Yeah, homedude should try to work for Mazda....as a Janitor!:D j/k You are rightt!!