Changing the Shifter Oil

You begin by removing the center console. There are two screws on the front side, one in the middle under the tray (cup holder, coin collector ;) and two in the center console case. Before you can lift the whole piece off, you need to unscrew the shift knob. When you are finished, you will see what is in the picture. My car has extra wires going across for an alarm and custom wiring to the HR speakers, so don't be alarmed if you don't have pink wires. To remove the shifter, carefully unscrew the 4 10mm bolts. Also visible in this picture is the top rubber shift boot. Inspect for any damage. Mine was fine.

Lift up the shifter to expose the lower 3 bolts that attach the shifter to the chassis. Note the lower shifter boot is now exposed. You should also check this one for any cracks. Carefully remove these 3 bolts (only 2 are shown in the picture, the third one is tricky to get to, but not that difficult) and the shifter will be able to be lifted clear. Have a rag handy to catch any gear oil that will drip from the bottom of the shifter. Unless you are bone dry, it will drip from the bottom of the shifter.

Here is the shifter removed from the car, on my garage floor. You can see the combo wrench I used below, as well as the rag (I warned you: you need one). I also have a bottle handy to spit out the old oil.

Now its time to get the old oil out. There is no drain bolt, so I used an old turkey baster to *slowly* suck out the old stuff. I large diameter syringe would have been much better, but I did not have one handy. Get as much out as you can before you get bored. I also stuffed a few paper towels down to catch some extra oil. When you are tired of sucking the old stuff out, fill with 90 cc's of your favorite gear oil. I used Redline MTL. Assemble it back together and go out for a test drive. My shifter was a bit smoother, probably because it had 8 year old gear oil in it.