Blitz
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Hi all!
Recently seen a large amount of questions regarding the main shifters available on the market. I was able to drive with a barton for about 20k miles and I have to say I love it. It does its job by stiffening your shifter up, no play in gear, no missed shifts and a lot less noise from the MT-82. I didn't think I'd enjoy another shifter and was perfectly happy. I though about MGW race spec to maybe even have more performance feel but didn't want to spend the money for the same thing.
David was kind enough to offer me a generous discount on the shifter from Steeda. I love you David, but I was a bit(a lot) skeptical about a suspension company out doing a company that focuses on shifters. I had to feed my curiosity of course and went ahead with starting this comparison.
First off, Packaging was great. Everything was well wrapped to protect the contents of its box... its... many... many... contents...
Barton's box came in... 3 pieces with a bag of bolts. Steeda's came with... MANY.
I'm not ususally scared too easily by something like this, and it's good thing Steeda includes a packet of instructions to help you from A to Z. Even a little common sense can get you through this.
I went ahead and pieced it together to get a good look... my oh my... it's a fantastic piece. Beautifully built and light. Flipping through the instructions I began to shit myself. I needed to re use a few OEM parts. if youre anything like me... you chuck that OEM Shitter in the garbage...
You will need both pivot cups for the two joints here. The larger one is the point where the shifter moves gear to gear from the shaft, and the smaller at the end connects to the linkage in your transmission. You will need both of these and luckily the friend I donated the barton/labor to allowed me to steal his OEM ones. Barton only re uses the cup for the linkage.
Next will be the little torx bit here holding the reverse lock out in place and the spring on the shaft to reset it when using. Steal those from your buddies if you don't have it or save it from your stock one.
All that said and done installs on both are a breeze. I took the barton off to sit these next to each other side by side.
Both beautiful pieces, the fact that I have two is kind of ridiculous. I'm sure Nick appreciates that I do. But it was right here when I realized, Steeda claims 20% lighter than competition. I had just carried the barton into the house, didn't think much of it. Then I picked up my steeda assembly... are you SERIOUS?? thing is seriously LIGHTWEIGHT... I mean pick both of these up at the same like youre doing front Dumb bell raise and youre gonna bulk on the barton side and tone on the steeda side. WHAT A DIFFERENCE.
on following through with that claim.
Here's where i thought steeda would fall short. The mounting part for the shifter assembly to the chasiss of the car. Logically the two prongs with stop the assembly from rotating cause the play in the stock shifter, and barton's did it beautifully. Steeda used one mounting point, but a solid one with their High-quality polyurethane bushing.
INSTALLED
Steeda's shifter installed on the car, first impressions were...
WOW...
In gear, extremely rigid. This is adjustable with two types of spring inside the assembly when piecing it together. Even less play than barton.
Shift Pattern is tight... i can use many analogies of how tight 1-6 is... but we'll keep it clean. Theyre almost on top of each other, I'm slightly paranoid i might go into the wrong gear but so far after a whole day of driving normaly and WOT gear to gear no issues.
Shifting gear to gear is another thing im impressed with. It's like a knife through butter. it just slides right in... like when you're lubricated ;)
NVH steeda gives you a sheet of Dynamat. I only used half. I should have used more around the base. I noticed more noise, but thats only because i was not using enough around the base. About the same when it comes to feeling the car when in gear versus the barton.
The steeda also uses OEM thread, so I was able to keeo my roush knob, but i noticed it was lower as well. My wrist can rest on the console. I LIKE IT.
Throw reduction... I can't tell if it's any shorter. 25% vs 30% i'll be honest im not quite sure. Ill have to drive my buddy's again to be sure. Definitely still short.
Overall I do not regret getting a new shifter. Especially one as well built as this You can definitely find other reviews out there comparing the race spec MGW vs Steeda and I believe it holds the same results across the board. You can't be upset about steeda doing another thing right. Great job guys, big shout out to [MENTION=10893]David@Steeda[/MENTION] for hooking Camilla up. Video to follow!
You will also notice in the picture of the top plate with the reverse lockout rail on the wrong side.
It was late that night. When Installing make sure that rail stays on the DRIVER side. that prevents you from going into reverse without the pull up mechanism. The retaining screw for the lockout mechanism will face the PASSENGER side.
NOTE
In my experience of installing several shifters on the s550, drive shafts do not need to be removed. Every angle under the car has its own advantage for each bolt. Whatever works best on one bolt, mirror it on the other side.
Recently seen a large amount of questions regarding the main shifters available on the market. I was able to drive with a barton for about 20k miles and I have to say I love it. It does its job by stiffening your shifter up, no play in gear, no missed shifts and a lot less noise from the MT-82. I didn't think I'd enjoy another shifter and was perfectly happy. I though about MGW race spec to maybe even have more performance feel but didn't want to spend the money for the same thing.
David was kind enough to offer me a generous discount on the shifter from Steeda. I love you David, but I was a bit(a lot) skeptical about a suspension company out doing a company that focuses on shifters. I had to feed my curiosity of course and went ahead with starting this comparison.
First off, Packaging was great. Everything was well wrapped to protect the contents of its box... its... many... many... contents...
Barton's box came in... 3 pieces with a bag of bolts. Steeda's came with... MANY.
I'm not ususally scared too easily by something like this, and it's good thing Steeda includes a packet of instructions to help you from A to Z. Even a little common sense can get you through this.
I went ahead and pieced it together to get a good look... my oh my... it's a fantastic piece. Beautifully built and light. Flipping through the instructions I began to shit myself. I needed to re use a few OEM parts. if youre anything like me... you chuck that OEM Shitter in the garbage...
You will need both pivot cups for the two joints here. The larger one is the point where the shifter moves gear to gear from the shaft, and the smaller at the end connects to the linkage in your transmission. You will need both of these and luckily the friend I donated the barton/labor to allowed me to steal his OEM ones. Barton only re uses the cup for the linkage.
Next will be the little torx bit here holding the reverse lock out in place and the spring on the shaft to reset it when using. Steal those from your buddies if you don't have it or save it from your stock one.
All that said and done installs on both are a breeze. I took the barton off to sit these next to each other side by side.
Both beautiful pieces, the fact that I have two is kind of ridiculous. I'm sure Nick appreciates that I do. But it was right here when I realized, Steeda claims 20% lighter than competition. I had just carried the barton into the house, didn't think much of it. Then I picked up my steeda assembly... are you SERIOUS?? thing is seriously LIGHTWEIGHT... I mean pick both of these up at the same like youre doing front Dumb bell raise and youre gonna bulk on the barton side and tone on the steeda side. WHAT A DIFFERENCE.
on following through with that claim.
Here's where i thought steeda would fall short. The mounting part for the shifter assembly to the chasiss of the car. Logically the two prongs with stop the assembly from rotating cause the play in the stock shifter, and barton's did it beautifully. Steeda used one mounting point, but a solid one with their High-quality polyurethane bushing.
INSTALLED
Steeda's shifter installed on the car, first impressions were...
WOW...
In gear, extremely rigid. This is adjustable with two types of spring inside the assembly when piecing it together. Even less play than barton.
Shift Pattern is tight... i can use many analogies of how tight 1-6 is... but we'll keep it clean. Theyre almost on top of each other, I'm slightly paranoid i might go into the wrong gear but so far after a whole day of driving normaly and WOT gear to gear no issues.
Shifting gear to gear is another thing im impressed with. It's like a knife through butter. it just slides right in... like when you're lubricated ;)
NVH steeda gives you a sheet of Dynamat. I only used half. I should have used more around the base. I noticed more noise, but thats only because i was not using enough around the base. About the same when it comes to feeling the car when in gear versus the barton.
The steeda also uses OEM thread, so I was able to keeo my roush knob, but i noticed it was lower as well. My wrist can rest on the console. I LIKE IT.
Throw reduction... I can't tell if it's any shorter. 25% vs 30% i'll be honest im not quite sure. Ill have to drive my buddy's again to be sure. Definitely still short.
Overall I do not regret getting a new shifter. Especially one as well built as this You can definitely find other reviews out there comparing the race spec MGW vs Steeda and I believe it holds the same results across the board. You can't be upset about steeda doing another thing right. Great job guys, big shout out to [MENTION=10893]David@Steeda[/MENTION] for hooking Camilla up. Video to follow!
You will also notice in the picture of the top plate with the reverse lockout rail on the wrong side.
It was late that night. When Installing make sure that rail stays on the DRIVER side. that prevents you from going into reverse without the pull up mechanism. The retaining screw for the lockout mechanism will face the PASSENGER side.
NOTE
In my experience of installing several shifters on the s550, drive shafts do not need to be removed. Every angle under the car has its own advantage for each bolt. Whatever works best on one bolt, mirror it on the other side.
Sponsored
Last edited:
