[PowerLabs]

Does your shifter buzz, or rattle? Mine did, BAD. It started with my first car, a 1999 RS that had an STI short throw shifter. I thought putting stiffer bushings on it would solve the problem; it didn't; instead it made the buzz more high pitched. Then I was told I needed to grease the shifter ball... Still nothing. The dealer said it was a spring inside the transmission... Nope.
Finally I solved this by filling the shifter boot with foam.

Then came the STI... My STI had a B&N short throw shifter. Yup, it rattled. Then I got every single shifter bushing you can buy, and a Karboy short throw shifter for it. Then it still rattled, but now even louder. With a mechanic's stethoscope I made some discoveries about the rattle that allowed me to completely eliminate it. Here is what I did:

1- Removed the shift knob. The top piece snaps on; you can pop it off with a screwdriver. The bottom piece also pops off. Both are free to move and thus vibrate. I covered their mating surfaces with epoxy and snapped them back on. Now the shift knob is completely solid. An aftermarket knob wouldn't need this typically.

2- Removed the shifter rod. Most of the vibration is occuring at the base; I coated everything with a THICK coating of white lithium grease. A lot of the audible vibration also comes from the reverse lockout ring bouncing against the shifter stick. Again a coating of white lithium grease on that quieted it down.

And voila... A completely aftermarket short throw shifter with all hardened bushings that is no louder than the stock unit. I'm sure I am not the only one with shifter rattle here, so I figured I'd share in the hopes this will help some of you

[snorky]

thanks for posting your findings. My vibration noises are self induced as my stock setup did not vibrate but now that i have every shifter bushing that TiC and Kartboy make, i have a lot of vibration noise. but only in 4th gear. if i place a finger even lightly on the top of the shift knob, it is silenced... due to my finger acting as a damper i assume. i will try your solutions and see if they work in my case and post up the results. i went kind of crazy with the litium grease(i always do) when i installed my cobb shifter so i'm already halfway there. regardless i will check to see if it needs to be regreased.

[supermarkus]

Also, double check your snap ring on the base of the shifter ball/socket cage. Mine wasn't pushed back into place correctly, I'm not sure how, but it wasn't, and it allowed the shifter to rattle a bit. I reseated the o-rings, packed everything with lots of lithium grease and seated the snap ring properly and it's been quiet as a mouse ever since. Also, when the front shifter stay bushing nut gets loose, you get a rattle around 4k that is intermittent and mostly in the even numbered gears. Just put some blue loctite on the nut when you snug it back down and it should never happen again. Just my observations.

[chaos311clarity]

mine likes to rattle at certain rpms, im gonna take a look at it, probably hit it with some grease... i think the rattle is from the ball joint.

[fullerton]

nandanrp addressed this a while back. he solved his problem this way:

Originally Posted by nandanrp

Forgot to post this from last weekend...

After installing my KB/TiC hardened bushings, I experienced increased NVH from the shift lever, as expected. I enjoy the tranny whine, but the shift knob also rattled a lot, and that got REALLY annoying. So this past weekend, I tried to fix the rattle...if the fix failed, I was going to buy a new Prodrive knob.

After two 5+ hour trips on the highway, I was able to determine that the cause of the rattle was the plastic shift pattern on top of the 05+ knobs. In fact, my initial fix was to wrap a rubber band around the top of the knob to stop the rattle. It worked, but clearly it was only a stopgap solution.

So I pulled the shift pattern off the knob, added some precisely cut foam double-sided tape triangles, and then pushed the shift pattern back on (it was a snug fit). I'm happy to say - the rattle is gone!

So for anyone with a noisy 05+ knob, here's your solution:

[chaos311clarity]

i dont think that is my particular issue, because im getting the same noises i got before with the aftermarket polymer knob... but thats def a good fix.

[fourseasonsandles]

Here I thought I was all super cool because I had the same problem and came up with the same solution. Only when I was going to post about it, some smart guy already beat me to it! Nice Job Nandan

Originally Posted by nandanrp

Forgot to post this from last weekend...

After installing my KB/TiC hardened bushings, I experienced increased NVH from the shift lever, as expected. I enjoy the tranny whine, but the shift knob also rattled a lot, and that got REALLY annoying. So this past weekend, I tried to fix the rattle...if the fix failed, I was going to buy a new Prodrive knob.

After two 5+ hour trips on the highway, I was able to determine that the cause of the rattle was the plastic shift pattern on top of the 05+ knobs. In fact, my initial fix was to wrap a rubber band around the top of the knob to stop the rattle. It worked, but clearly it was only a stopgap solution.

So I pulled the shift pattern off the knob, added some precisely cut foam double-sided tape triangles, and then pushed the shift pattern back on (it was a snug fit). I'm happy to say - the rattle is gone!

I also removed the dime that was stuck down in my shifter today to get rid of the annoying metal "ring." I am again noise free. It's nice!

[Turninconcepts.com]

THe biggest source of rattling that I have noticed after a shifter install is the position of the reverse lock out cable in the shifter. It often gets pushed against the side of the shifter when the roll pin is knocked back in. When I install shifters, I knock the roll pin in just a little too far, then hit it back into place from the other side. This centers the cable in the shifter to try and prevent rattles.

Tony