My friend has a 2012 Subaru WRX and wanted to tighten up his shift pattern. He ordered new bushings online so we went about swapping the stock ones out.
The lovely Subby
New bushings!
The cars pretty low to the ground so getting under it was a bit tricky even on ramps. The shift linkage came out pretty easily but getting the old bushing out was a bit of a challenge.
After getting the heat shield off we were able to get to the first bushing. It was cast right into the linkage and was flared at both ends so getting it out was tricky. I ended up using a knife to cut most of the flared end off the one side I could reach then with some clever prying and WD40 slid it out of the link arm.
Old bushing
Old Vs New. The new one is 2 piece so its easily installed and much firmer.
This was the bushing up front (closer to the driver) it bolted directly to the under body of the car. The hole in the center is what held the shift link.
Getting it out was easy but replacing it was tough. The two screws you see were extremely hard to thread and there was very little room between the driveshaft and exhaust to reach in. It took about and hour and a trip to the hardware store for one of
these to get both started. After that everything was buttoned up and it was good to go!
The shifter felt significantly better and quicker into gear. The only downside was more engine vibrations could be felt in the shift nob itself (which is to be expected)
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