New M2C manual owner - how strong are gearbox gates?!

[AndyTheGeo]

Posted this in the Technical forum, but thought I'd re-post here to gain other owners' views. Ta, Andy

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Happy New Year all!

Long-time member, almost-never poster, and just collected a low-mileage 2019 M2C manual. What a car.

Once I got the car home I found I couldn't select reverse. Onto Google, confirmed no push down/pull up required, just move the lever to the left from neutral, push past some resistance and forward into R.

This took quite a few attempts to get right, and on some of those attempts I was trying to force the gear lever to the left past the 1st-2nd plane when it simply wouldn't go. Always with the clutch fully depressed.

I'm a fairly cautious chap, and also not too powerfully-built (quite the opposite, in fact). But is there any/much chance I could have damaged the gearbox (e.g. the gate) by trying to push the lever to the left when it clearly wasn't going through the 'notch' into the Reverse plane?

The shift feels okay now, though I've not driven the car since. Planning on taking it to my local indy soon to get it generally looked over and I'll ask them, but in the meantime I'm appealing to the forum for some peace of mind

Any views/know-how much appreciated. Cheers all, Andy

[mythdat]

It does take a bit of force to knock it over into reverse, otherwise it would be easy to mis shift into reverse, especially since there's no collar lift mechanism to unlock reverse on these cars. Hard to say if there's something wrong without comparing it to another manual BMW but I think it's highly unlikely you could have damaged anything

[nickfrog]

Great choice of car, they are quite rare.

Isn't the car still under the original warranty or bought Approved Used?

If so I would take it to a BMW official dealer for them to check if all is well. Which in all likelyhood it is, it takes a bit of getting used to the first time. My 21 year old lad drove my car the other day and struggled too to find reverse too, he didn't dare move the lever as he said the amount of resistance felt high to him.

Edited by nickfrog on Saturday 15th January 14:11

[NelsonM3]

I had a manual M240i which I guess is the same gearbox? IIRC you do need to put a little downward pressure as you push it into reverse. The shifter won't "drop down" like some other makes of car.

[AndyTheGeo]

Cheers all. Good suggestions/knowledge.

I'm getting more used to the gearbox now I've actually driven the car a bit. Reverse seems to be more about a rapid movement left (to the correct point), rather than using more force.

Fingers crossed I didn't do any damage with my early clumsy efforts, but as mentioned I'm fairly weedy. The car is within warranty so I can always check with BMW.

Overall it's an impressive bit of kit. Even stock, the upper portion of the rev range has prompted some muttered expletives... Looking forward to some warmer/drier roads so the Supersports can get more grip.

Thanks again

[mythdat]

AndyTheGeo said:

Cheers all. Good suggestions/knowledge.

I'm getting more used to the gearbox now I've actually driven the car a bit. Reverse seems to be more about a rapid movement left (to the correct point), rather than using more force.

Fingers crossed I didn't do any damage with my early clumsy efforts, but as mentioned I'm fairly weedy. The car is within warranty so I can always check with BMW.

Overall it's an impressive bit of kit. Even stock, the upper portion of the rev range has prompted some muttered expletives... Looking forward to some warmer/drier roads so the Supersports can get more grip.

Thanks again

I was the same at first, if you just try to gently push it over to reverse it doesn't seem to happy to go in, now it's just a quick flick over in one smooth movement every time.

And yeah it's a completely different beast once you can get some heat into the tyres, the supersports don't bite the road at all this time of year. Roll on spring!

[st33ly]

Hey. Did you buy Grahams old manual Long beach blue car? If so you got an absolute minted car. With regards to your query they are difficult to engage. My wife struggled.

[Thermobaric]

A finicky engagement of reverse is a bit of a "feature" on BMW manual boxes I've found in my experience. Perhaps I've just been unlucky though ha. I sometimes get issues going into first too. If reverse is deciding it doesn't want to engage, I go neutral, release the clutch. Depress the clutch, second to first/third then reverse and that generally works and doesn't need excessive force/rapid movement.

Edited by Thermobaric on Friday 14th January 16:48

[Pupp]

Crikey; glad I went DCT…

[nickfrog]

Pupp said:

Crikey; glad I went DCT…

On a M2 finding reverse is a non event after the first time. I don't know about older manual BMWs but neither my E82 nor my M135i were a challenge in any way shape or form. It was like any other good manual gearbox, you select reverse, the end.

[AndyTheGeo]

st33ly said:

Hey. Did you buy Grahams old manual Long beach blue car? If so you got an absolute minted car. With regards to your query they are difficult to engage. My wife struggled.

Hi! Negative, this is a black car. One owner and 3,000 miles so it's fairly immaculate. Would have preferred orange, blue or silver tbh but I'm getting used to the Batmobile

[AndyTheGeo]

Thermobaric said:

A finicky engagement of reverse is a bit of a "feature" on BMW manual boxes I've found in my experience. Perhaps I've just been unlucky though ha. I sometimes get issues going into first too. If reverse is deciding it doesn't want to engage, I go neutral, release the clutch. Depress the clutch, second to first/third then reverse and that generally works and doesn't need excessive force/rapid movement.

Edited by Thermobaric on Friday 14th January 16:48

Thanks for the tip. Agree first is also a bit sticky. For reverse I'm finding that inverting my left hand on the stick before pushing to the left gets reasonable results. There's no doubt some user error on my part, but so far this 'box isn't close to the best manuals I've owned or driven. Still enjoying the car, though!