I have the hybrid Phantom knob. It works great in the summer, except for that hot little metal ring near the bottom, which normally wouldn't be an issue, except we have that metal foreskin we have to pull up on to get in reverse -_- both that little metal bit on the knob and the foreskin get sooooo hot... Otherwise it's good.
Now for the winter.....I'm in NJ, and it gets decently cold AND hot, so I know what I'm saying. In the winter, it gets coldasf*ck and does not warm up quickly at ALL. I'm sure a stainless steel one would be worse but....damn it's still flippin cold!!

I would definitely get the base bushing and cable bushings. When you see the stock ones, there is a BIG BIG difference!! I kind of forget what my base bushings looked like, but I think they were cheap Kia plastic. Not very sturdy at all. The stock cable bushings are weak rubber rings basically. There's a lot of give. The TWM kit bushings (both) are metal, so the delivery will be more solid.

I'm so so happy I got the bushing kits!! Do itttttttt!! But the knob is iffy. I like it, I like the shape and the coloring is kind of cool. But it's just like, it'll do... It's really light though :/ Wish it had been heavier... Still, I don't really regret it.

Good luck!

 

Thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate it. When I spend this much money on my ride, I want to make sure I do it right.

Do you have the short shifter installed too?


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^^ she is right, the stock base bushings and cable bushings suck. They are both soft rubber, the base bushings are rubber with a metal internal sleeve, this allows the shifter assembly to move when shifting. The cable bushings are hollow rubber and flex under a hard shift. With the new twm bushings, both are replaced, and rather easily. The bas bushings are replaced with aluminum and the cable bushings are replaced with brass. It is most certainly a nice modification, it won't make the car any faster, but it will make it more enjoyable to drive .

I liked the short shifter for the koup so much that the first thing I did when I got my wrx was to order their shifter kit for it.

 

^^^what he said. It wasn't even that hard to do.

 

Also, if you sign up for the TWM newsletter, they send out pretty regular discount codes. Not big, usually like 10 or 15%, but better than nothing. Or why don't you try reaching out to them from the forum and ask?

 

i will do that.

on another note, you said that the shift nob could be a little heavier. Should i go for something like the M1 Abrams that is the same shape, but heavier. of course the temperature is going to be way different, but i want to know how if feels shifting.

 

You can do whatever you want... Do they have the weights on there...? I forget. If not, see if you can send a message to them and find out the weight of both the M1 and Phantom. Then just find something about the same weight and sling it around lol that's about all I can say... I think Xray had an M1 in his, and it was definitely heavier. I drove his around the block and I liked it.

And we did it in the summer, and his shift knob was f*ckin hot hot hot!!!! ahhh

 

I was lucky enough to get the shifter with the bushings for my birthday earlyer this month and didn't have time to install the shifter but was able to do the cable bushings ( having a CAI moved everthing out of the way already) and those alone improved the feel and firmness 100%. When i did finally install the short shifter is was very simple and only took about an hour to do myself. The hight reduction is almost unnoticable the the throw is much firmer. As someone who drive in traffic ALOT it makes shifting fun again and grinding gears never happens anymore.

The only down side so far is the reverse lock out is Aluminum and get very hot in the sun and pretty cold when parked over night in the snow, and it is bright silver and does not go with the coloring of the interior at all. Wish there was a Black option or something to blend in better.

But with that said still easily the BEST mod I've done! (so far)

 

now, when you installed this short shifter, i am doing my on sunday before the game, did you need any special tools...i have a basic socket set and screwdrivers

do i need to go to my parents house and used real tools?

 

NO not really it does call for a punch and hammer and a table vice. I just used a screwdriver with a hammer worked fine. You may need a second set of hands on somethings but I did it by myself just fine.

 

I saw on ebay some aluminum cable bushings for $20. I think TMW has them at $30. Either way, I got the whole setup from TMW, minus a knob.

When you pull the shifter into a gear, there is that momentary 'wall' of extra toughness that you have to go through before you get the car into that gear
The (new) cable bushings fix that 'wall' and make it super smooth and easy.

The base bushings eliminate 'jiggly-ness' of the shifter itself. When you put the shifter all the way into a gear, try jiggling the shifter. You will see that the shifter has a lot of play. This is just the shifter itself, nothing to do with connecting the shifter to the gears like how cable bushings do.

I highly recommend these two parts, due to their cheapness ($50, total) and ability to prolong the life of your transmission because you are able to pull it all the way into a gear (quickly) instead of grinding it because you didn't pull the shifter far back enough.

TMW also has a great write up on installing all those parts, which is what I used to do it. Removing the stock rubber bushings also means destroying them with pliers to remove them. Just FYI.

 

Does adding the short shift kit help with throttle and clutch feel, especially in first and second? I did the TPS voltage fix but still think clutch action could be a tad smoother.

 

Just ordered the bushing kit today, can't wait to try em out


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