I'm not sure if this has ever come up before, but I just discovered today that the rectangular gasket that surrounds the shift gate is different depending on what year car you have. On our 1991 300E, it's a removable piece of plastic, but on our 1987 300E it's a piece of rubber that's attached to the center console wood panel. I discovered this while removing the wood today on our 1987, only to find that the gasket wasn't coming out like on our '91. On a whim, I decided just to try to lift out the panel and see what happened, and much to my surprise the whole thing lifted right out.

I probably should have figured out something was up, because the gaskets look different (and are of different materials) on the two cars, but hindsight is always 20/20.

In looking at the gasket from behind the panel, it appears that if someone *does* try to remove the gasket from above, any part of it that comes out will NOT reseat. There might be a way to jury rig it back in, but the only other way appears to be the purchase of a new gasket assembly, and bonding it to the wood panel.

anthony