...here are some pics to help you see if this is what happened:

First, pull up on the shift surround trim, from the rearward edge:


Then, you'll need to remove the shift knob. I don't have pics of this (I'll have to remember the next time I pull the shift knob for something). First you must seperate the metal sleeve on the lower shaft from the lower edge of the leather knob. Best way is to pry gently with a plastic putty knife. Once that sleeve is released, turn your key to the accessory position, set your parking brake, and shift into either 4th (for 2001 and earlier) or Sport (for 2002 and later). Pull the tiptronic button out about 1/4", and at the same time, pull up on the knob REALLY hard. It will release, and be careful not to knock yourself out. Use soemthing like a paper clip or blade fuse to wedge in the groove on the bottom of the knob's button so it does not retract into the knob. If you don't do that, it is a PITA to get back out!

Once the knob is off, locate the tabs that hold the bezel in place. There should be two on each side of the metal shift bezel (hard to see in this picture), and you release them by gently prying back the plastic tabs. Be very careful, these are easily broken:


Look at the rubber gasket that is under the shifter circuit board, and look for the little rectangular magnet:


If that is missing, try looking around that compartment, it should be somewhere there. As far as the other plastic dust covers, you'll just have to play around with them to get them to line up. It is not that hard, but I didthe same thing when I took apart my shifter for the tiptronic paddle-shift steering wheel in my 2001 2.7T. Took a while to figure out how to line up those plastic "louvres", but eventualy got it to work just fine.

Mine was out of alignment as seen in the picture below. If I recall, I had to line up the plastic louvres and seat them properly in the rubber gasket. In this picture, they were out of the channel where they were supposed to be seated, so the shifter did not operate properly in tip mode.


Hope this helps!!!

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