Hi all,

I have a 2004 panda at 70000 miles that I have had for just under a year now. In pretty tidy condition and have had no problems with it.

I have however now developed a slightly annoying problem. The knob on top of the gearstick has been loose for quite a while and if you were to change gear too enthusiastically it sometimes popped off, leaving you with a little metal pole which was sometimes a bit alarming! Bit it pushed back on fairly comfortably so I hadn't done anything about it.

I went away for a while and left a house sitter with use of my car for a month. She emailed me saying the knob had fallen off and she'd taped it back on, I presumed it was no big deal and was just what i'd experienced a few times. However upon getting back in the car something else seems to have happened.

The knob is now sitting on top of the plastic rim that is usually required to be pulled towards you to enter reverse. Meaning it comfortably shifts into reverse but you have to jiggle it around to find fifth gear which is a bit annoying and strange to suddenly happen... As you will be aware to enter reverse you need to pull the plastic rim upwards the knob, it basically seems to be stuck in this state.

As I say i'm not sure what happened, I could ask the woman who was looking after the house and car but I think she'd be pretty clueless. Is there something I can adjust? There is not a sufficient amount of the small metal rod sticking above the rim to allow me to push the knob back on properly now either - hence why she taped it on.

Anyone got any ideas? I suppose I could live with it and just glue the knob onto the top of the rim that you pull upwards, but it would be great if I could fix it and be able to shift smoothly into fifth again.

Might take some pics tomorrow. Thanks.

By far the easiest way would be to get one from the breakers. The cables pops off and there is only about 10 screws/bolts and 2 c clip. Would fix the loose knob and reverse bit stuck.

Needs to slide freely guessing the tape got in the way.

Normally they are very very tightly pushed on and fairly impossible to remove.

You could glue it with epoxy but you would still need to remove it to stop the glue running down.


Not near Crewe are you. I have just thrown a 2005 one in the bin.

Hi Koalar,

No i'm in Cornwall unfortunately!

I removed the tape to get an idea of what was going on, the knob now just spins freely on top of the stick.

As I say I could glue it and potentially live with the problem, if I could get hold of a gear stick is it a job a novice could have a go at?

Also i'm a bit worried as it's got it's MOT coming up at the end of the month, if I botch it not sure if they'll pick up on it...

Yes it an easy job

Once you have done one before it would take no more than 10 minutes.


Only a Few basic tools


Some torx bits, screw drivers and 13mm (I think) socket or spanner.

Ok thanks for the advice.

I've glued the knob back on for now. Interesting to note that they don't check the gears in an MOT i found out by doing a quick search - so hopefully shifting problems won't be an issue.

I think i might pick up a haynes manual so i know what i'm dealing with.

My second panda had a loose knob. I folded some thin card and along with some strong impact adhesive I glued it on. Once dried it never ever moved again.