Welcome to my Blog, BMW stories and more.: Shifter Knob Peeling

Monday, March 18, 2019

Shifter Knob Peeling

Shifter Knob Peeling
BMW E90, 330i, 2006 (240K miles)

I bet every single E90 by now has the Shifter Knob peeling or bubbling, unless you didn't drive it every day like I do, I bet the top of the Shift Knob is starting to show signs of its age, either looks ugly or bubbling or like my shift knob completely bald...lol, it's sad but true...

Sticker or Label, (re-wrap), or Paint?, or Replace:
I've seen on Youtube a few people that decided to re-wrap the shifter knob, but to be different, I plan to paint mine. Black.

New replacement Cost:
New OEM $80 to $130 from
BMW Part number: 25 16 7 570 652

Amazon replacement : $20 dollars

Disassembly:
I don't recommend taking off the plastic part "white" part. Because you will break the plastic tabs holding it to the shifter. I painted mine in place. By now the plastic will be very brittle and it won't survive you praying on the plastic tabs. If you must start at the bottom and pray up.

After removing the Aluminum cover, it took me a solid 2 hours to remove all aluminum foil
To get it to this state where all the plastic is white.

How to remove from the car:
It's very easy. The shifter Knob will come (UP) and out by pressing the shift button, then pulling up on the shift knob (like you are going to shift gears), then pulling up. It's that easy. I like to put mine on neutral and then pressing the button and then pulling up.

My personal Fix:

I almost bought a new one, because they are not expensive. But I wanted to make my own car my own by doing something outside the norm. So i went with Painting it. Its up to you to modify in different ways. You can opt to wrap it, you don't need much material and you can do a funky color if you like. But I like Black and so I went with Black paint.

I used Rustoleum, because it bonds good to plastic. Link at the bottom if you want to do the same.