Spilled Soda on Gear Shifter

[Predator_CITF]

Guys, I posted this on another car forum, but the members didnt give me much valid advice other than "it'll fix itself".

--------------------I have a 95 Altima, and I went to Wendy's today and ordered a regular sized meal, but they charged me for large and gave me a large meal. So, I decided to just take it b/c I was too lazy to go back and argue with them. I put the HUGE cup on my cupholder (it doesnt fit, barely) and I drive forward, and the soda tips BACK and all this Dr Pepper spills onto my gear box (? is that the right term? its the thing i shift back and forth to go from park to drive, reverse, etc.). Is this bad? Did any soda spill inside and will it screw the shifting mechanism?

------------------^^^ (the above was posted last Thursday)

The following happened yesterday:I started my car today and the gear shifting thing, it was so HARD to move! But like after the car started running, it was fine. My mom spilled soda on the gear a long time ago, and she said the same thing happened to her. When the car runs for some time, the sugar melts and the gears move again. When the car is idle or when you're first starting it, the sugar has been crystallized and the gears are hard to move.

Is there any way I can clean this by myself?

Here's a diagram of my interior:

Ok, heres my interior:

(without hte little GPS thing)

If you look at the gear shift thing, theres a little black covering at the bottom...



(i enlarged the figure)

Where the bluish thing is pointing, that little black strip, that whole gear strip got flooded with soda.

Please help!
Modified by Predator_CITF at 5:16 PM 1/9/2007

[le_ryan]

theirs no problem, like you said it just gets sticky, its actually just sugar bonding to the plastic that makes it hard to shift when stuff gets spilled on it.You can either take it apart and clean it - pretty simple, OR put some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spray a light coat on the effected area, then run the "gear selector" throught its gears up and down a few times to get the alcohol to eat away the sugar.

[Robi1]

Gidday mate. 1st you'll need to remove console do so without disconecting seats or seatbelts/ wiring. usually move seats as far forward as poss, remove rear screw covers/screws then forward screws ashtray & where console connects to dash. normally you can remove console without removing shifter. also to watch out for are if there are switches connected to console sometimes they are connected to the front of the cosole tray if so open tray and unscrew inner box to disconnect wires from switches. once console removed now the cleaning begins. I would suggest the use of lots of towels/rags around shfter as ther is going to be water involved. "Sorry no other effective way to dissolve sugar" the towels are for soaking up the liquid, a bucket of warm mildly soapy water (normal dishwashing detergent ) not too much, a smallish paint brush or 2 and get into the shifter housing n around it with the brush n water also disconnect wiring connections to shifter and clean inside terminals. to remove the Tbar cover can be tricky because there is a spring and ball bearing on the inside of the lever you need to replace this properly and not loose the ballbearing. once you have the cover off wash it with the water as well as the insides of it. after wardsdry everything off with towels or cotton buds or the terminals and hard to get to places lightly grease innards of t bar replace cover of tbar and cover plate of shifter Which once tbar cover removed can itself be removed. the replace console etc. good job for a rainy day in the garage goin to take you a good few hours to do. otherwise take it to a car groomer to clean up dont know what they charge in the states here in nz I charge $200 for that one. coffee is worse than soda trust me. especially on white/cream interiors. good luck n may the force be with you