Gear shifter

BMW’s cable operated shifters are problematic—these were more widely used in older vehicles but have been used in some of BMWs more recent FWD/FWD-based xDrive vehicles too. Due to the way they’re built it is easy to break internal components, particularly through rough use.

Most of BMW’s electronic shifters are well built. In F-Generation builds we’ve seen very few instances of electrical/mechanical failure. But there is a major problem with the E70 X5 shifters (BMW’s earliest attempt at using electronic shifters) due to an internal design flaw.

The gear shifter is the driver’s interface for controlling the transmission’s gear and mode. BMW has largely moved towards using electronically operated shifters (most of their cars are automatic now) but they still use some cable operated shifters in the FWD/FWD-based xDrive vehicles.

There are usually multiple, non-exchangeable types of gear shifter within any given model generation—the changes often don’t follow an explainable pattern.

The best way to determine fitment compatibility of a gear shifter is to match the BMW part numbers from the catalogue. This can be done by decoding your vehicle’s VIN in a BMW EPC (electronic part catalogue.)

If you don’t have access to an EPC, provide our team with your vehicle’s 17-digit VIN—and we’ll check our stock for a compatible match.

There is a high amount of interchangeability between vehicle’s that share common platforms, such as the F-Generation 1, 2, 3 and 4 Series.