hi people i want to change the gear knob and gaiter on my mk3 gti firstly how easy is it? and where would you suggest i go for the parts si
Is this a serious question!? I mean seriously... how easy is it to change my gear knob and gaiter.... Sometimes I despair, I really do... The only thing I can tell you about this job, is that it is very time consuming and in the Haynes manual it gives a hardness rating of 5 spanners. Oh, and you need a left handed screwdriver
It screws off anti clockwise. Don't forget to detach the rubber gater at the base first. Whatever you do, don't replace it with some tat from halfords. At least get the knob and gaitor for a GL. Not cheap though.
at the serious answers. ^^^^ answer above is correct, but if you cant work out how to remove the gear knob you should ride a bike.
Gents if we can take the question as a serious one pls. Hopefully the OP will elaborate on the intended swap.
Im sorry Chris if I cant take these guys seriously, between this guy and the chap in the other thread who insisted on capital letters for every word (who said he had had his fingers blown off in Iraq and his little finger was bigger than my cock) its really a struggle
Dennis - the start of your last post has been edited for obvious reasons. Let's just let it slide. Thanks.
I'll come and try to be useful! As stated original gearknob just unscrews anti clockwise. I wanted to update mine but keep it OEM, so I bought a Lupo gerknob and gaiter from ebay for about 10. Went to fit it and found out it was far too long and didnt have a screw thread so I tried by securing it with a tie wrap. However, it was still far too long and did sometimes spin, so off it came! Whilst searching the tinternet, noticed that somepeople had cut down the gearstick and re threaded. I didnt really want to do this, as I like to be able to revert back to standard if required. Noticed that someone had stated that you can drill out the inside, and the gearknob will sit lower, so thought I would try it. And low and bejold it works a treat, dont know what size drill bit I used but it was just the right size so that It threads the gearknob when you screw it on. I did have to trim off a couple of bits of ble plastic of the gearknb so that it went low enough. But it looks great in my opinion!
Hi Ian - sounds great, is there any chance of you posting pix of where you have drilled out the Lupo gear knob etc and how you secured it in situ? Was it a case of just drilling deeper by a couple of cm or so ? I have a MK IV leather TDi gear knob on on my MK3 to try and retain an OEM look without it looking too aftermarket and have the exact same problem. Fits ok but sits a little too high, mine is secured with a jubilee clip and is pretty tight really.
come on guys not everyone is sad like us and knows lots and lots about cars it not fair to take the Michel out of him. we all have to start somewhere and not every one is mechanically minded its comments like that which putt people off joining the forum
All I did was fold the gaiter back, trim the 4 prongs of the bottom of the gear knob where the original metal clip was, this was because when I started to screw the knob on these would have prevented the gearknob getting any lower. The drill bit I used was just the right size that when I started to put the gearknob on as if I was screwing it on that it threaded itself, and is now a very tight fit. I probably drilled 1.5cm deeper, just drill what feels right. I held the drill bit next to the gearknob and set it in the drill so that I wouldnt just drill straight through!! I left probably 1cm of gearknob above the gearstick. some very poor pics from my Blackberrys totally useless camera!!
Hi Ian - many thanks for the description of what you did! Very much appreciated indeed. Nice Recaro's too!
No problem, only thing I dont really like about the gaiter is that it looks dimpled, to match the gearknob. but the bottom is elasticated like the mk3 leather ones.
Your Lupo gear knob looks exactly the same as my MK4 (TDi) item. I plunged for a 2nd hand (near new tho!) Momo gaiter off of ebay that's black but a smoother leather so nice contrast overall :-)
