The GT comes from the factory with a very precise and well balanced shifter -- possibly the best manual shifter to come from Hyundai. However, I found the throws a little long for my liking, so I opted to install an aftermarket short throw shifter from B&M Racing.

If you are like me and have a 2002 Elantra GT, then there is no listed manual short throw shifter from B&M for this model year. Someone at their factory even confirmed that they didn't have one for MY2002. However, the one for the 2001 Elantra / Tiburon (not listed on their website!) works just fine.

Installation is simple and straightforward and should take about half an hour to an hour, depending on how much of a fight the console top cover, push-on nut and retaining pin put up. At least the instructions that came with the shifter were quite comprehensive and accurate to the car.

Installation requires you to remove the console top cover first. The instructions said to use a flat- bladed screwdriver, but someone suggested to me that two dinner knives (okay two flat-bladed screwdrivers) at the rear edge of the cover would work better. I agree! Put the two screwdrivers at the rear corners of the console top cover and prise up. As soon as you can get your fingers in the gap, do so, since it will minimize screwdriver damage to the trim. There are six trim clips attached to the cover but once the rear pair let go, the rest will follow.

Follow the instructions for removing the factory shifter and installing the new shifter. One thing I found useful in removing the hinge-pin holding the tower top was an old allen key that I got with something or the other. It was short and fit the hole just perfectly. The instructions say to use an 8 mm punch but I didn't have one and thanks to the front seats, access is limited anyway.

Here is a good tip -- check the little hole in the ball opposite the short arm that sticks out of the side. There is a 3 mm allen-head keyway screw. If this is not tight, the upper shaft (to which the knob is attached) will rotate slightly back and forth in the blue ball, causing looseness. Before you install the shifter, tighten this allen-head keyway screw, since you don't want to go through most of this installation again in a year's time if it allows the upper shaft to exhibit some play.

Reassemble (note how much shorter the gearshift is now) and go for a spin. You will notice that shift effort is increased slightly, but the travel is dramatically reduced. Now all your gear-shifting is a wrist motion instead of an arm-action. The feel is nicely weighted and precise. Well worth the upgrade. You have the option of installing the B&M knob or re-using the OEM knob, which I chose to do.

Update : Installing a TWM Performance Short Shift Kit

Well, I installed the TWM Short Shift kit in my 5-speed Tiburon GT V6 last weekend, and all I can say is -- wow! Throws are shorter as expected, a bit stiffer at first, but thanks to the aluminum bushings for the base assembly, there is no "rubberiness" any more. Shifts are positive with a lovely feel. Gears now snick into place, and the shift to third (sometimes a little vague before) is much improved.

The instructions for the installation are conveniently listed on their website, as well as being shipped with the kit.

As shown at right, the kits comes without the plastic cups that fit over the spherical ends of the shifter arms, but that is all right as they supply a tool (slotted disk) to help you remove the cups off the original shifter. The finish of the shifter is beautiful, and even has a neat decal which I may never see again. The ball is steel as opposed to plastic in the original, and the overall quality of the shifter is flawless.

The shifter is about 2 inches shorter than the original and the threads at the top fit the standard Hyundai knob. The shifter arms are also a bit longer to compensate for the shorter height.

While the instructions are good, there are a couple of things that it forgot to mention --

1. To get the console top off (photo 2 in the installation instructions) I used a nail file to get in the crease under the console top and then worked it back to the 6 o'clock position where there is a little ridged tab. I pushed that tab slightly forward and lifted the console top off. Prying from the side can do damage.

2. You have to remove a small panel in the console top at the base of the handbrake lever in order to get the console to be lifted off the handbrake lever. This panel is partly shown in the same photo 2 mentioned above, in the extreme lower left corner of the photo).

The hardest part of the installation was removing the retaining washer (see photos 5 & 6 in the installation instructions) which I had to butcher to get to come off. The kit comes with 2 so this is not a problem. Other than that, the installation is straightforward. See the before & after photos, 1 and 2.

I highly recommend this kit over the B&M (also a good kit) since the aluminum bushings make all the difference in the world.

This was actally one of the easiest upgrades I have done -- even easier than installing all four low and high beam Xenon bulbs.

These bars are not easy to come by but I managed to locate one for the 2002 Elantra GT on the Shark Racing website, and they shipped it here within 2 weeks all the way from Korea.

There is not much to installing these bars, and a good thing too since it came with no instructions. Researching the Internet resulted in a simple straightforward approach -- one that I used in this installation.

First, you need to park the car on level ground so that there is load on the struts which would not only keep the strut towers the correct distance apart, but depending on the bar you get if you have to release all three bolts, then having the wheels on the ground ensures that the suspension does not fall out.

I laid the bar out on the engine, to make sure that it would fit, and also to see how this thing was going to be installed. Since mine was not a straight over top bar, I had to decide if the bar would sit with the bow facing forward or aft. Bow forward interfered with the valve cover and also other components there. So I switched the layout to bow aft and saw that my only interference was likely to be a plenum (?) on the intake hose between the filter box and intake plenum. Still not being sure that this would fit I started to install without even taking the plastic off the bar, since I might have to return it.

I removed the brackets from the bar and then removed two of the three the nuts at the top of each strut tower. I then fitted the brackets and replaced the nuts but not tightening them at all. I attached the right side of the bar and laid the bar down on top of the interference to see how bad it would be. I concluded the intake hose had to be rotated.

I loosened the screws tightening the clamps at both ends of this hose between the plenum and the air filter box. I then rotated the hose so that the part contacting the bar was just out of the way. I then tried to hook up the other end and found that it would not reach. I started to wonder if this was the right part for my car.

Leaving all the bolts slack and using a bit of tugging and stretching, I got the free bracket over both holes. I then tightened the strut tower nuts to bwteen 29 and 37 ft.lb of torque (per WEBTECH) and the bolts at the bar ends to "pretty tight". The box on the air intake hose was still rubbing the fine edge of the bar.

I then rotated the hose some more until there was a 1/4 in gap. Now the engine would rotate under torque and not klunk the bar. I looked at the bar from level with the front of the car and noticed that the two strut towers did not appear to be at the same height off the ground, and that is why the bar was not installed perfectly level. At least it is nice and flat and won't interfere with the closing of the hood.

For a few days after the installation I will be checkig the snugness of the bolted connections as the bar "seats itself". The bar does stiffen the front a bit, especially during cornering, but the change is subtle.

There is not much to this upgrade really. Just buy the standard 2003 Hyundai Tiburon Pedal Kit and Footrest from the dealer and install them in place of the stock rubber pedal covers and plain plastic footrest. They actually work out to be significantly cheaper than aftermarket "racing-look" pedal covers and are a perfect fit.

All three pedal covers are rubber with slotted brushed aluminum faceplates, so installation is the reverse of removal of the old ones, which are "peeled off" the steel pedal plate. The back of each of the pedal covers has a lip all around which must be fitted over this steel pedal plate. The Elantra GT accelerator pedal is a one-piece plastic assembly integrated with the pedal arm. The new pedal cover for the accelerator simply fits right over the existing pedal face.

The construction of the footrest or "dead pedal" is similar to that of the pedal set, except that instead of rubber backing there is a plastic base with the slotted brushed aluminum faceplate. To remove the original, simply remove the retaining screw at top left corner of the piece, slide the footrest up about an inch, then pull the right edge of it towards you, hinging about the left edge like it was a door. There is a lip along the left edge which fits under the left footwell trim piece. Once you swing the footrest assembly out you can lift it out of place. Installation of the new footrest is the reverse procedure, starying with hooking this left edge lip under the footwell trim piece, swinging the footrest forward flat against the carpet, then sliding it down to allow the two hooks on the back to catch in the slots in the retaining bracket. Replace the retaining screw, and you're done. The whole array should look cool like this.

Like most modern cars, the Elantra GT is set up so that when pushed to the limit, the front tires will lose traction before the rears. This means that the car will plow ahead straight when pushed too hard, rather than spinning out. This is generally considered safer for the average driver, but not a whole lot of fun for more experienced drivers. High performance cars are set up with much less understeer, or even a bit of oversteer.

I came across a solution to the GT's terminal understeer at elantraxd.com. Jay Montigny, a Hyundai parts manager in Enfield, CT and a member of the ElantraXD forum, said that you can swap the GT's 15 mm rear swaybar for the 19.2 mm swaybar on the 2003 Hyundai Tiburon GT. He said two parts are interchangeable, the only difference being the diameter.

The parts necessary for the swap are:
55511-2C000 Bar
55513-2C110 Bushing - 2 req.
55530-29500 Steel End link - 2 req. on models with plastic end links.

You can order the parts above for about $145, but I ordered just the bar from my local dealer. With tax I paid about $93. I wasn't certain that I would need the other parts, so I decided I'd try to install it using the original brackets if I could, rather than order something I didn't need.

As it turned out, the only parts that didn't work perfectly were the rubber bushings inside the clamps that attaches the middle part of the bar to the frame. If I'd really thought it out ahead of time, I'd have reasoned that a 19 mm bar isn't going to fit in a hole designed for a 15 mm bar. The bushings are slit on one side to facilitate placing them around the bar, so I just spread them wide and used a bench grinder to remove enough material from the inside surface to where they'd fit. (My lovely and gracious wife sure appreciated the smell!). I'll be ordering new bushings for permanent use.

Some Elantras are equipped from the factory with plastic end links, some with steel. With the higher stresses created by the stiffer bar, Jay strongly recommends the steel ones. Mine are plastic. They appear to be solid and well made though, so I'm leaving them be for now.

To remove the old bar, disconnect the end links from the bar using two 14 mm wrenches. If you try to do it with just one wrench on the nut, you'll spend a lot of time and energy waiting for it to back off. (Don't ask me how I know!) If you're replacing the end links, do the same thing at the top of the links. Rear stabilizer bar link mounting torque: 35-45 Nm (350-450 kg.cm, 26-33 lb.ft)

Then remove the 4 bolts holding the brackets that attach the center part of the bar to the frame. Slide the bar out to the side, over the exhaust pipe. Installation is the reverse of removal -- torque is 17-26 Nm (170-260 kg.cm, 13-19 lb.ft). Just make sure that you install it in the correct orientation. The bar has a bend on one end so it won't bind when going over the exhaust pipe. (One of the posters at elantraxd accidentally put his in backwards and was AMAZED at how much stiffer his rear suspension was. It banged pretty good over bumps too!)

Jay recommends that the rear suspension be set at 1.2 degrees of negative camber to reduce oversteer when braking during hard cornering. I haven't had this done yet, but probably will soon.

With the new swaybar, there is far less understeer, bordering on oversteer. When pushed past the tires limits, the rear end will push out some, so be ready to countersteer! The feel is much more sporty, even under moderate cornering. Body roll is greatly decreased, but the change in ride comfort is almost imperceptible. I used to joke that my GT cornered on it's door handles, but it feels a lot more a true sport sedan now.

Update : Progress Rear Sway Bar on Tiburon GT

Installation is no different from above, but I just wanted to share some photos of this excellent piece of gear. For starters, this adjustable bar is made very well and finished in a nice turquoise colour. It is also a good bit thicker and heavier than the bar I removed. See the bars side by side.

The kit came complete with polyurethane bushings, brackets, grease and stickers. An instruction sheet was also provided, but when it mentioned taking off the wheels and tires, I decided to ignore it. The above instructions are much better.

This is an adjustable bar with the "softer" setting being via the outer holes, which are at the same distance from the transverse part of the bar, as with the stock bar.

I installed it at the softer setting for now, since kicking it up a notch will only take 15 minutes or so.

A quick test drive confirmed its new roll stiffness, but I will leave it like this for a while before making the final decision. As it was for my 2002 Elantra GT, this is a great upgrade!

Several GT owners on this site's mailing list were wondering how to install the cargo net, saying that the net they got did not come with instructions. Mine did but were not very clear and straightforward. I installed it originally in the wrong place, only realizing this after someone sent me another set of instructions [667 kB]. I re-installed it and ran into a few snags, hence this Garage Page entry.

First off, the cargo net is supposed to be attached to one of the screws attaching the rear speaker housings/parcel shelf supports to the body of the car. This means removing the screw and replacing it with the screws that came in the kit ... the ones with the T-shaped anchor that the cargo net loops are supposed to go over.

Anyway, after removing the screw using a 10 mm socket, I quickly discovered that none of the supplied studs fit into the hole when inserted by the pointed end. I however noticed that the square end of the stud -- the end that is supposed to screw into the hole in the T-shaped anchor -- fit into the hole, and was very similar to the screw removed.

So I selected the studs with the shortest pointed end, intending to insert that pointed end into the T-shaped anchor. Unfortunately the pointed end was too long for the T-shaped anchor. I got around this by using two washers to shorten the distance the pointed end of the stud was inserted into the T-shaped anchor. The pointed end still made a slight impression on the top of the T-shaped anchor, but ot could have been a lot worse.

Installation was then easily completed by screwing the anchors into the holes, attaching the net, and standing back and admiring the finished product.

I got a nice one that matched the dash from a music store that carries filter for stage lights. Matched perfectly. It cost a total of $3 because I bought a nice filter. You could do it cheaper by buying a transparent sheets from Office Depot or somewhere similar.