Hi all,
Back in January/February I purchased the Short Shift Kit from BMS for 2008 135i. I haven't yet talked to anyone at BMS about the shifter, but here are my thoughts from doing the install and first couple days driving with it.
It appears to be exactly like the UUC version, my assumption is that it is the same kit, just sold by BMS. If this is true, then it is great value - you save like $225 right now as the BMS is on sale.
I used a combination of instructions from BMS, UUC, and the e90post:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102808
The install took about 4 hours because I had some difficulty at a few spots. I used a jack under the front jack point and two jack stands under the sides for the install (a lift would have been awesome!)
First, you need to unhook the leather shift boot before pulling off the shift knob. Everything I read said to pull the knob first, then remove the boot, but this will tear the boot and you'll have to purchase a new one as I do
. It appears that this is different for different models, just be careful.
The second problem that I had was with the bearing liners. I'm not sure if they were the wrong ones, but they would not slide over the carrier pin. I had to manually drill them out slightly so that they would slide on. This took forever b/c I didn't want to drill them too big as I figured that would add a potential for slop. After about 10 tries, I got them to the point where they would barely slide on. Also, I could not fit the washer on the end of the carrier pin before putting on the circlip. I will try to put this on again to minimize side to side play.
I should also mention that included in the kit are the tools for taking out the carrier itself (replacement pins). I chose not to do this because it would have likely doubled the time and effort for the install, and in general seemed pointless. I'm open to input as to the benefit of doing this part of the assembly.
Finally, the shift lever came pre-installed. The nylon cup, springs, and snap ring were already installed into the housing. It moved very smoothly around within the housing and there was no included grease, so I made the (possibly bold) assumption that everything inside was pre-lubricated. This added some difficulty when tightening the screws in the carrier housing, but it was simpler than taking everything apart and then re-assembling.
Result: in general I am a fan of the shorter shifting. It definitely takes more effort to shift, but it feels better than stock. I do have a lot of in gear side-to-side play, but it doesn't really affect anything when shifting. I may look at doing the DSSR, but not for a while as the difficulty seems not worth the effort. There is no increase in vibration, but you do have the nice "metallic" shift noise when going into gear.