Type-S Intermittent Shifter Issue

[justa335i]

I ran into a really strange issue today and was wondering if anyone has any idea what could have caused this. I have a 2025 Type S with 21k miles.

I got in my car this morning and started driving like normal. Everything felt completely fine. After about 20 minutes on the interstate, I exited and slowed to make a turn. When I went to shift, the shifter did NOT want to move to the left.

I had no issues going straight up into 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th, but the shifter would not move left to engage 1st or 2nd. I was able to get the car moving in 3rd and pulled into a gas station. I pulled up the shifter trim to check for obstructions or anything obviously broken, but nothing looked damaged or out of place. The shifter just physically would not move left.

I noticed the small amount it would move left was enough to pull it down into 2nd, so I drove like that. After another ~20 minutes of driving, I stopped at a light and tried again — suddenly there was no resistance at all. I could get into 1st normally like nothing ever happened.

I parked the car for about an hour, came back, and drove again — zero issues. I then drove a few more hours with multiple stops — still perfect. Later I sat in school pickup for about 30 minutes creeping forward (neutral → 1st → neutral → 1st repeatedly) and it never acted up again.

Below is the best way I can illustrate how it felt:
(Green = normal, Yellow = high resistance, Red = basically impossible)

From what I’ve read so far, my only real guess is the Gate Select Shift Cable was binding, and then once it was fullllllllly warmed up whatever was binding relaxed and went back to normal.

Has anyone experienced something like this before?
Especially loss of only the left gate (1st/2nd) that later completely resolves?

Dont feel like taking this to the dealer since they will just say they couldn't replicate the issue.
The car has an aftermarket intake, but there's no way that can be responsible as its been on since the car had sub 200 miles.

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[elh0102]

OE shifter?

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Check your clutch/brake fluid as well. Sometimes can be trans fluid, but likely not if it's stock. Could certainly be cable bind, but I'd consider it less likely since these cars aren't 10+ years old at this point.

I just had this happen yesterday but not to the extent you have. For me, it makes 1st and reverse super high resistance. 2nd just feels clunky at first. It's happening because it's cold here and my high temp clutch fluid is not a big fan of it until it warms up a bit. Did not happen at all last year on oe fluid.

On my old subaru I had a heavy summer trans fluid and in Midwest winters I'd have to slip the clutch while forcing it into first or reverse to generate some heat, warm things up, and finally loosen up the fluid enough to move into the gears.

My issues were from spec of fluid to env mismatch, but the same can happen with contaminated fluid that's turning sludgy. Clutch fluid then trans fluid are the culprit often. I know I've made a mention in my build thread and around the forum a few times; my brake fluid from factory looked 2 years old and heavily contaminated. Dealer never noticed. When I noticed I changed it and found copper particles in high volume in the MC. It's a shared system. I would not be surprised if others have also had heavy contamination from factory. It could just be time for a clutch flush.

 

[ChromaPop]

I'm curious what speed you were going when you were trying to shift into those lower gears, as well as whether or not you were holding the clutch down for a long time before you try to shift into those lower gears? Forgive me if you are a more advanced manual transmission driver but we have a few newbies on these forums that are not.

 

[justa335i]

OE shifter?

Yup

My issues were from spec of fluid to env mismatch, but the same can happen with contaminated fluid that's turning sludgy. Clutch fluid then trans fluid are the culprit often. I know I've made a mention in my build thread and around the forum a few times; my brake fluid from factory looked 2 years old and heavily contaminated. Dealer never noticed. When I noticed I changed it and found copper particles in high volume in the MC. It's a shared system. I would not be surprised if others have also had heavy contamination from factory. It could just be time for a clutch flush.

I didn't think of this! Ill check the condition.

I'm curious what speed you were going when you were trying to shift into those lower gears, as well as whether or not you were holding the clutch down for a long time before you try to shift into those lower gears? Forgive me if you are a more advanced manual transmission driver but we have a few newbies on these forums that are not.

These are fair questions! I have driven stick for ~15 years and ~90% if my cars were stick.
I was at a dead stop, and even tried it with the Parking Brake Engaged (as first i figured it was a lockout of sometype misbehaving).

I had 0 issues today. Happens again, its going to the dealer and hopefully they can see it before it magically disappears.

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