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Bought a 03 C5 Z06 a month ago, with a hurst shifter installed. During the test drive before purchasing, I immediately noticed the rattle from the gear lever area - which could have caused me to walk away from the purchase. However, placing a palm over the boot reduced the noise significantly - and I decided to trust the seller that the noise was caused by the new gear lever.
As I had to repair the dim HVAC LEDs, I couldn't assemble the center console without trying to do something about the rattle. I noticed that the drive tunnel almost behaves like a chatter box, being very effective at transmitting mechanical noise. As a previous Lotus Elise owner, I know all about it... I noticed that the center section of the gear lever (fulcrum) missed sound deadening material, and came up with the idea of installing a driveshaft CV boot underneath the shifter boot, which is in denser material than the flimsy OEM shifter boot.In combination with a layer of of Fatmat (Dynamat ripoff), I'm hoping that this will help reduce the audible rattle.
Correct. It did however quiet down other sources of noise (exhaust, road etc) and removed the high pitched part of the rattle.
The remaining rattle now seems to propagate through the gear lever to the gear **** itself.
Correct. It did however quiet down other sources of noise (exhaust, road etc) and removed the high pitched part of the rattle.
The remaining rattle now seems to propagate through the gear lever to the gear **** itself.
I might do the same and replace it with a C6 Z06 shifter, but the CV boot reduced enough of the high pitched rattle so that I can live with it for a while.
Should have just removed the demon key. I got the rattle when I put the Hurst in my car back in 2006. Pulled the demon let back out and wrapped the stick threads with enough Teflon tape that I could snug the shifter **** into position without it being loose. No more rattle. At all.
I've had a Hurst shifter in my C-5 since 2002. No "rattles", and it works quite well.....
Since later, more recent posts have addressed the shift ****, and I'm reading through this discussion for a second time, let me add this. As a couple of posters mentioned the shift ****, I'll add that I went with a Kirban aluminum shift ****. I seem to recall that I purchased it from Zip Products, but I bought it 18 years ago, so I'm really stretching my memory cells with this. The **** didn't come with a lock nut, so when installing the ****, I hit it with a drop of blue Locktite, and as previously mentioned, no vibrations.
But I'll also add, since OP updated the discussion by mentioning a harmonic balancer being an issue, I installed an ATI damper on my car, about 6-7 years ago.....not because of a problem, rather to avoid a problem.
Last edited by leadfoot4; Nov 4, 2020 at 08:02 AM.
OP, do yourself a favor and throw that piece of s*** Hurst ball in the garbage. Plenty of fixes out there including the C6 shifter and boot like others mention, or you could modify the C5 shifter and get an aftermarket **** and get creative with the shifter if you have access to a machineshop or tools to modify it (as I did). I modified my C5 shifter to be a little shorter (aligned the shifter "ball area" with my palm while resting on the arm rest) and I changed the ball to something I liked in size and feel.
PS: I actually tried to "fix" the Hurst ball rattle before I gave up on it and realized that it was just trash. The reason for the rattle is the threaded insert loses its tight fit with the ball. You would have to extract the threaded insert and re-install it with epoxy or something. Just not worth the hassle for me.
Last edited by turabo87; Aug 26, 2019 at 01:42 PM.
For anyone interested, the true origin of the rattle was a bad harmonic balancer! This causes engine vibrations, which are not cancelled out by the Hurst shifter design. I could still notice a slight vibration in the C6 shifter, but at 101.000 miles, the balancer was replaced while repairing a front oil seal leak, and the C6 shifter went completely silent (along with the rest of the drivetrain, which quited down at high RPMs).
OP, do yourself a favor and throw that piece of s*** Hurst ball in the garbage. Plenty of fixes out there including the C6 shifter and boot like others mention, or you could modify the C5 shifter and get an aftermarket **** and get creative with the shifter if you have access to a machineshop or tools to modify it (as I did). I modified my C5 shifter to be a little shorter (aligned the shifter "ball area" with my palm while resting on the arm rest) and I changed the ball to something I liked in size and feel.
PS: I actually tried to "fix" the Hurst ball rattle before I gave up on it and realized that it was just trash. The reason for the rattle is the threaded insert loses its tight fit with the ball. You would have to extract the threaded insert and re-install it with epoxy or something. Just not worth the hassle for me.
I fixed to rattle from the Hurst shifter ball. While tightening the ball I just caught the fabric of the shifter boot between the top edge of the locknut and the ball. If you do it right the ball won't rattle and it's on tight enough not to move.
Hurst rattle again - new possible fix
