Getting good shift quality from a manual gearbox...

[breeze]

Big fan of the S3/Ed30/TT shorter shifter mod here , Fitted one to my Scirocco.

It's about £70 from UK dealers

Thanks for the suggestion. I was a bit cautious about fitting something that might make the shifting more notchy but decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

Now fitted. It has shortened the throw but oddly appears to have made the shifts smoother too.  Not exactly sure how, but I am not complaining. Great improvement with no down side.

I went for the 8J0711046E part in the end. There are a few variants but this one was around £40 plus delivery from LLLParts. It took forever to arrive so I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that doesn’t like waiting…

Edit: I have a sneaking suspicion that the new shifter arm is weighted, adding momentum and smoothing the shifts. Should have put it on the scales.

[pudding]

I thought they were all weighted?  Maybe they changed the weight in relation to it's pivot point?

[breeze]

I thought they were all weighted?  Maybe they changed the weight in relation to it's pivot point?

If I had to guess from how it feels, I would say the weight (the big triangular part) has been increased to add momentum to smooth the shift. That would be one way of counteracting the notchiness that you might introduce by shortening the throw. The weight is definitely changed in relation to the pivot, you can see looking at it.

Looking at some of the aftermarket parts, it looks like additional weight is part of the design. The APR adjustable short shifter for example has what they can ‘adjustable counterweights’ on it. ECS is similar.

I’m quite tempted to add additional weights to the arm to have a bit of a play. Nothing massive, but I bet you could feel another 20% in the shift. Obviously that would make getting out of gear slightly harder, but the payoff going into gear would be greater in terms of driving experience I would say.

[pudding]

Yeah adding more weight would make sense if shortening the throw.  Can't say I've ever compared the two as ED30s come with the S3 shifter as standard for some reason.  Not sure why VW deemed the GTI unworthy of such an improvement!

Glad it's all paid off for you, and not too much outlay