State'd RS2 Coupe

Ever since I've owned my '08 S4 Avant, I've hated the auto shift **** (besides being an automatic that is...). It's tall, ugly, and looks more at home in a 90s Toyota Camry than my '08 S4 with carbon fiber trim. I know there were a couple of direct replacements like the perforated leather (see Nick's Blog), but was hoping to address the overall height as well as the look.

On a whim, I ordered a next gen A4/Q7 carbon fiber **** from eBay for ~$120 (very happy with the quality). After a couple of YouTube videos to get comfortable with the disassembly I gave it a go.

Couple of issues: Without some major digging and replacement of the core shifter, height can't be simply lowered (figured, but was hoping) and 2 you have to keep the accordion cover unless you did a full B8 conversion. So the new leather gaiter had to go.

So with the new shifter, I twisted off the leather gaiter and locking ring, snipped some of the longer mounting plastic tabs (about an inch that wouldn't fit down the shaft cover) and ended up with an almost instant plug & play replacement.

Overall for a $120 and about 1/2hr of fiddling around I think it looks pretty damn good (and yes it works just fine too)! Carbon fiber matches and the more silver trim on the **** matches the shift plate much better. Couldn't fix the height, but with the wider and flatter top, it isn't as noticeable. It's not perfect, as the new **** has a square base and the round cover column only flares a bit, but given the angle, overall minor gap, and matching color only a true Audi OCD nut would likely notice.

Overall very happy with the end result.


Small Improvement, but not worth it to me

Old **** & height

See youtube videos... Make sure to push the column cover down about a 1/4 inch, then pull out button and pull hard to get off

Hello Camry parts bin



Plastic shaft column is lose on old ****, snug on new

trim slowly until it fits in old shaft


square <> round

If I only had a 3D printer...

good enough

Old height (no need to take off cover plate, was just poking around)

New Height ~ same

barely notice shaft / **** mismatch

The new sexy