UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

TLDR: How hard is it to drop the shifter box out the bottom of the car?

I'm looking at replacing most of the bushings in the shifter mechanism in my polo as there is a lot of play side to side, front to back, a slow return to center from the 1st and 2nd gate, and 3rd being very close to 1st. After doing some research I found that the play is most likely due to worn bushings, the slow return to center being corrosion or dirt in the side to side pivot point on the gearbox, and 3rd being close to 1st being a bad shifter alignment.

After discovering dieselgeek and finding they sell nearly all of the stuff I need and it all looks straight forward to replace. Other than the cable end bushings which seem to be a massive pain in the arse. Replacing the bushings themselves looks easy but it's getting at them that is the issue as you either have to drop the shifter box out the bottom of the car or drill a hole in the side of the shifter tower.

I can't find much info on how to take out the center console in order to get more access to the shifter tower and to the bolts which hold it in from above or on how to drop the shifter box in general.

Gearbox is the 5 speed O2T

Bepis

I have replaced bushings on my 02R gearbox from Dieselgeek, although I did not need to drill the hole at the side as just replacing the side to side. The bush was accessed on the left was all I needed to do. It did feel a lot better afterwards with a lot more 'spring' in the return.

You will need to remove the centre plastic console in front of the gearbox console (this was the most fiddly), remove screws around glove box to access centre console (use a Torx head or M8 spline). When remove and replacing bushes you will need long nose pliers to prise off and on through the holes and in case you drop them inside.

The videos provided by Deiselgeek are very helpful and drilling at the side seems far easier than videos I've seen of getting below and removing the casing around the bottom of the the gear selector, as the casing below looks like they don't want to remove the seal.

Be aware when ordering from the USA, if you are willing to wait use the USPostal option otherwise using Fedex is very expensive and you will be hit with an import TAX from Fedex.