People who buy new cars typically buy them under the impression that they should work perfectly fine as is, and be serviced under warranty. Not Mr. Westermeister though. While his new Fiesta ST, nicknamed “Finn,” has been a blast to drive, shifting the transmission was a bit of a letdown. The linkage was tight, but the throws were a little too long compared to the rest of the car’s sporty nature. With a whopping 300 miles on the odometer, it was decided that a short shifter was going to be installed.
Perusing the web will garner all sorts of short shifter options for the FiST, but after doing a bit of homework, it was decided that an easily reversible solution was the best route to go on such a new car. In the case of the front wheel drive Fiesta ST, short shift kits come in two flavors. There’s the kind that is fitted to the transmission itself, and then there’s the kits that are installed through removal of the car’s center console. Wes elected to go with the kit that installs on the transmission, because it would be a crime to rip apart a brand new interior devoid of squeaks and rattles. Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can!
The short shift kit that was chosen for the job is produced by FSWERKS. For less than a Ben Franklin shipped to our door (and that includes CA sales tax), the FSWERKS kit provides a completely bolt-on solution for shorter shifts. Their kit uses two CNC machined pieces of aluminum that are sandwiched over the stock shift linkage, then the shifter cable simply snaps back on to the new pivot location. As mentioned earlier, this is completely reversible should Wes want to go back to stock at any time.
The kit comes with a total of seven pieces: (2) aluminum shifter plates, (3) Allen/Hex key bolts, (1) threaded shifter cable ball pivot, and (1) tube of Blue Loctite. There are a set of instructions that come with the kit that are fairly straight forward, but a little reading online helped us streamline the process. Install took us about 20 minutes.
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- The FSWERKS Fiesta ST kit components. The three bolts use a 4mm Allen/hex key in case you don’t have one.
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- The black piece tucked down low is the new short shifter assembly. Space is tight, so this is where small hands have the advantage.
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- This is the shift lever in the neutral Position.
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- This is the new position for 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears.
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- This is the new position for 2nd, 4th, and 6th gears.
Bangin’ Gears
With the new short shifter installed, gear changes were vastly improved. The 25% reduction setting wasn’t too short, nor did it make any of the gears feel notchy, which is often a problem with short shifters. A quick spin around the neighborhood made us realize that the Fiesta was a lot easier to drive. While the steering and pedal feel are naturally quick to respond, they were being hampered by the long throws of the shift lever. Now the gear throws are well matched to the rest of the car’s character. This upgrade will be most appreciated when less time is spent between gears on a nice section of twisty road. For a little less than 100 bucks and twenty minutes of our time, it’s hard to beat the instant improvement…and that everything on the car is just as clean as when it left the lot a week ago.
-JC
Here’s the kit we used for this install:
FSWERKS Short Shift Kit for Ford Fiesta ST 2014-2016
DIY
How to Install FSWERKS Short Shift Kit
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