Gary King

iTrader: (19)

Is anybody running the Fidanza shifter?

Axxtion

I haven't heard of this shifter. Were can I go to see it?

westpak

iTrader: (19)

I got one off of Ebay and it did not come in a Fidanza box so not sure if it is for real but do not get that one form Ebay.

It did shorten up the throws but feels wobly and if the car gets hot you LOSE REVERSE, I found this out on my trip to Zdayz and the first time it happend was after stopping in Atlanta to rest and I couldn't get it in reverse, I was like WTF, I just had the clutch replaced also so I was freaking out wondering what the problem was, so later I went back out and I had reverse again not sure why but after it happening a couple of times over the weekend I realized I had to let the car cool off and I had reverse again.

Basically you can go through the gears but cannot push down on the shifter to go into reverse, it might be the material in the cup and with heat expand and get stuck not fun specially the first time it happened, I am going to put my stock shifter back in, a waste of 100 bucks.

Gary King

iTrader: (19)

http://www.fidanza.com/products.aspx?id=shifters

It is listed in their application guide.

Gary King

iTrader: (19)

Thanks for the info. Any way to find out if it is a Fidanza for sure when you reinstall your stocker?

westpak

iTrader: (19)

I will see if there is anything on the part itself.

I don't see a short shifter there, it shows a flywheel though.

Gary King

iTrader: (19)

You are right westpak, I thought I saw it in there. I clicked on shifter application and it gives you flywheel application. I searched around and could not find a 350z shifter application. I heard that they had one for the 350Z now. I will give them a call and find out what the story is.

westpak

iTrader: (19)

Well I finally took it out and replaced it, to recap here is a summary, by the way the shifter had no Fidanza marks but the box did have a lable I missed before, I emailed Fidanza to see if they had any opinions on it no one should use it:

Well I bought a short shifter on Ebay that was labeled as Fidanza so I figured it would be a good product, the seller has a good reputation and only sells car peformance parts so I figred it was safe. I even checked the
Fidanza website and although the site did not show the shifter pictures of other shifters looked similar so I went ahead and bought it and put it in a couple of months ago and was unhappy almost right away and finally
got around to taking it off and putting the stock one back on, I didn't say anything on here as I wanted to see it again to see if it had any markings on it to indicate it was a real Fidanza part.

The issues I had with it were:

The shifter had a lot of wabble like when the bushings wear out, the base/bushings where it bolts to the tranny linkage was not wide enough and had too much play.

The shifting was very notchy and sometimes was hard to get into 5th/6th, this was probably because it doesn't use the stock guide plate, it made the stock shifter feel like you were cutting through butter with a hot knife.

And now the worst, when it got hot like during hard driving a long trip over an hour the shifter got stuck and you could not get it into reverse, the first time it happened was in Atlanta on my way to Zdays and it freaked me out
until I realized that it was probably the cup expanding and getting stuck in the tranny linkage I would have to wait for things to cool of or sometimes punching the top of the shifter did it

Here is a picture of the shifter, which looks like good quality and also a pic of shifters on Fidanza website which look simiar and use the blue plate and such, I think I am going to email Fidanza with what happened: