Why does BMW use plastic shifter balls?
The answer is obvious: cost. It’s cheaper to make a solid rod and slip a plastic ball onto it than make an entire metal assembly. Actually, we know that the plastic ball shifter was not always used by BMW; they started appearing in various models around the early 1990s, along with a wave of other cost-cutting measures. Previous to that, BMW used steel-ball shifters in all models. In fact, it was not until the less-expensive plastic-ball shifters appeared that we started to hear about BMW shifters failing, actually breaking under hard use. The typical degeneration of the plastic-ball shifter: BRAND-NEW All nice and pretty, very smooth! That is, until we look closely… CASTING MARKS Dotted lines show seam on side, flat area all along other side, and casting flash. TIMELINE New shifter shown on left, used shifters as removed from BMWs of various ages. Shifter on far right is still wearing the nylon cup bushing. Note the eight “fingers” that grab the shifter, and the slots in between that
