[i4.phil]

The front slats on my X3 opens and closes all day. One time it stayed open (defective, warranty repair). It's supposed to be fuel efficient when closed. But these are huge holes/grilles (small holes on this i4 grille probably doesn't make much of a difference, i think).

 

[Matteo]

they probably make less difference than the huge holes on the X3, equally because of Venturi effect the more the speed increases the more air gets "sucked" in.
Ice cars also have "discharge points" at the top back of the bonnet, which the i4 kinda has too, but made inefficient by the plastic plate under the bonnet. Removing that would probably better the aerodynamic performances of a grille with holes.

being small at city speeds will impact very little aerodynamic performances, but as the speed increase, there's a logarithmic increase of aerodynamic drag.

To give you an idea, my M135i does the 0-60 in 4.3 to 4.5 sec. I have quite generous front bumper canards mounted and removing them the 0-60 drops to 4.0 / 4.3 sec. it seems incredible that those little pieces of plastic do so much difference at such ,low speed, but they do.
I also know than when it was stock with no aerodynamic bits it was easily reaching the end of the tach in 7th gear and then still taking speed in 8th gear, now, a lot of aerodynamic surfaces later, it struggles to get to the end of the tach despite the extra 130hp...

Those cuts will surely not sensibly reduce the performance of the i4, but impact on the efficiency for sure.

 

[toosteeley]

impact on the efficiency for sure.

I highly doubt any of us will notice any difference whatsoever.

 

[jmciver]

they probably make less difference than the huge holes on the X3, equally because of Venturi effect the more the speed increases the more air gets "sucked" in.
Ice cars also have "discharge points" at the top back of the bonnet, which the i4 kinda has too, but made inefficient by the plastic plate under the bonnet. Removing that would probably better the aerodynamic performances of a grille with holes.

being small at city speeds will impact very little aerodynamic performances, but as the speed increase, there's a logarithmic increase of aerodynamic drag.

To give you an idea, my M135i does the 0-60 in 4.3 to 4.5 sec. I have quite generous front bumper canards mounted and removing them the 0-60 drops to 4.0 / 4.3 sec. it seems incredible that those little pieces of plastic do so much difference at such ,low speed, but they do.
I also know than when it was stock with no aerodynamic bits it was easily reaching the end of the tach in 7th gear and then still taking speed in 8th gear, now, a lot of aerodynamic surfaces later, it struggles to get to the end of the tach despite the extra 130hp...

Those cuts will surely not sensibly reduce the performance of the i4, but impact on the efficiency for sure.

This…. All of this “theoretical math” is good (and accurate) when in the lab or wind tunnels, and even on the professional race track, where .001 seconds can win (or lose) millions $$$. But in the real world, practical application for the overwhelming majority of users on public roads, like those on this forum, this will not matter or make any significant difference in the day to day use and efficiency of our cars.

Also, these types of modifications, while technically altering the way it was originally designed by the engineers, should not have adverse affects on your vehicle as long as you take a practical and common sense approach to doing these types of modifications, including doing your research. Then you can determine the level of risk you want to take with your car for any given modification. Altering the “intended design” of your car with most modifications will be fine if you you take this basic common sense approach - especially with simple modifications such as an aftermarket grille replacement. Your car is most likely not destined for catastrophic failure.

That said, I am not quite ready to start “tuning” my i4 for better electric motor performance, like what I have seen done on some high performance Tesla track car builds. That is definitely a more advanced type of modification with bigger potential for major component damage/failure if not done properly. But I have done this type of “engine tuning” successfully on my ICE cars for years, very reliably. The basic methodology when determining to modify your car (or not) still applies. So if/when that sector of the i4 aftermarket community matures to my comfort level, I may go along for the ride 😈….

 

[Matteo]

I highly doubt any of us will notice any difference whatsoever.

I absolutely agree, it would not be noticeable by any of us, it was just a technical point.

This…. All of this “theoretical math” is good (and accurate) when in the lab or wind tunnels, and even on the professional race track, where .001 seconds can win (or lose) millions $$$. But in the real world, practical application for the overwhelming majority of users on public roads, like those on this forum, this will not matter or make any significant difference in the day to day use and efficiency of our cars.

Also, these types of modifications, while technically altering the way it was originally designed by the engineers, should not have adverse affects on your vehicle as long as you take a practical and common sense approach to doing these types of modifications, including doing your research. Then you can determine the level of risk you want to take with your car for any given modification. Altering the “intended design” of your car with most modifications will be fine if you you take this basic common sense approach - especially with simple modifications such as an aftermarket grille replacement. Your car is most likely not destined for catastrophic failure.

That said, I am not quite ready to start “tuning” my i4 for better electric motor performance, like what I have seen done on some high performance Tesla track car builds. That is definitely a more advanced type of modification with bigger potential for major component damage/failure if not done properly. But I have done this type of “engine tuning” successfully on my ICE cars for years, very reliably. The basic methodology when determining to modify your car (or not) still applies. So if/when that sector of the i4 aftermarket community matures to my comfort level, I may go along for the ride 😈….

No day to day difference in terms of performance, I agree, in terms of efficiency, I'm not sure, there would need to be more calculations, which I'm nor ready to do, as blanking those holes is such an easy thing to do. Anyway, you are probably right, maybe it won't impact that too much, and I'm just being extreme, I was saying only as I'm very well aware how certain "little things" actually have sometimes an impact greater than expected.

As you say, everyone is free to judge by themselves what their approach and limit is to what they want to do with their car, and this is a very minor modification. To me it seems silly to ignore the fact that those little gaps can be blanked bringing the design "almost" as it was intended to be. I'm saying almost as, if we want to be pernickety, the different slats will have a different aerodynamic impact, as much as the old vs. new grille would, but I think that's completely negligible.

You misunderstand me if you think I'm a "don't touch the car, engineers designed it like this" guy, I've got bits for the i4 from before it was delivered here, I'll mount staggered wheels with beefy semi slick tyres, so that would be a proper kick in the butt to the range! I'll change brakes and suspensions components and so on. My aerodynamic package will definitely impact the range much more than a few slits in the grille, but that's me, and I decide that knowingly, so I thought bringing all the points to the table here sensible to do. I'm not saying anyone not to do it or that the car will explode!!! XD

In regards to electric motors performance, I already asked to the BMW workshop if they can "remap" the rear motor of my M50 to the same output level set for the 40 range... it's mechanically the same motor, so the power output is just reduced by some sort of power management, I really can't see any risk in that if the 40s run the motor with that power output...
I'll see what's come out and I'll update everyone.

 

[generic.user]

@J_P this is purely anecdotal: but I haven't noticed a single difference in efficiency, performance, or amount of debris inside my engine bay since installing this grille, and I've had it for like 5000km

 

[Mdrake75]

Does anyone know if changing the grill in any way voids the battery warranty on the car? I'm not interested in speculations or assumptions so please reply only if you have actually talked to BMW.

 

[toosteeley]

Why in the world would it void any sort of warranty?! You’re being paranoid.

 

[jmelvin133]

I have the Ali grill installed and it's at BMW for a drivetrain malfunction error. They have determined there are some bad cells and have said nothing about the grill. So far it's all still under warranty.

 

[Mdrake75]

Why in the world would it void any sort of warranty?! You’re being paranoid.

If it changes the airflow around the battery cooling system behind the grill and the battery fails, they may argue that an aftermarket grill was the cause. I have been in similar situations before, most recently with Audi and their oil consumption issue. They tried to argue anything you did not follow 100% their recommendations to get out of paying. Luckily I could prove that I had done everything by the book, or it would have cost me more than $10k to fix.

 

[Mdrake75]

I have the Ali grill installed and it's at BMW for a drivetrain malfunction error. They have determined there are some bad cells and have said nothing about the grill. So far it's all still under warranty.

Thanks, that is good to know. I guess if they see a correlation with these errors and after market grills that could change.

 

[generic.user]

If it changes the airflow around the battery cooling system behind the grill and the battery fails, they may argue that an aftermarket grill was the cause. I have been in similar situations before, most recently with Audi and their oil consumption issue. They tried to argue anything you did not follow 100% their recommendations to get out of paying. Luckily I could prove that I had done everything by the book, or it would have cost me more than $10k to fix.

If anything, the aftermarket grille INCREASES airflow to the cooling system, as it has a few extra gaps in the upper section. Also, if that was the argument they were going with to get out of a warranty claim, they'd have to prove that cooling was the issue, and that the battery overheated. In that case, wouldn't that say more about the car and its safety systems? I doubt they'd go down that route

 

[J_P]

After a few false starts, I finally got around to modifying and fitting my Aliexpress grill a few weeks ago.

As discussed, I'm not happy about there being ventilation slots in the top half of the grill and was looking for some way to blank them off. I'm not saying it will cause an issue, or other people should do the same, I just personally don't like the idea of fitting something that gives a different air flow to the original.

From an earlier suggestion, I bought some black acrylic to cut and glue on the back of the grill. I originally planned to use a single piece each size, curved to the shape of the grill. I've never worked with acrylic sheet and the thinnest I could find was 2mm. When I got it, I realised it was very stiff and would at least have to be clamped while glued to get the curve and would still leave a lot of stress on the join. I decided instead to cut strips to glue over each hole and use a black MS Polymer glue to secure it. I looked at a lot of glues for this project. For those not familiar with this glue (I wasn't), it is like bathroom sealant, flexible and can be used to also fill gaps, but the bond is much stronger than bathroom sealant.

Once I had my supplies, I tried to cut the acrylic to find that it is very brittle and bits easily snapped off as you tried to make a cut. Back to the drawing board.

I looked at using something else and found that you can just buy sheets of ABS plastic (the same material as the grill). Unfortunately the area I needed to cover is slightly wider than A4 so I had to buy a bigger sheet than I wanted but I could get it 1mm thick. When it arrived I found it much more flexible and as the grill and sheet were ABS, I could use a solvent weld glue (the sort of thing used for permanent joins of plastic pipes) which dries in seconds and forms a really strong bond. I was ready to go!

Firstly I made a paper template by laying a sheet of A3 paper over the back of the grill and using a scalpel to cut around the edge. It was a bit rough but sufficient for my purpose:

I drew around it on ABS sheet and found it was easy to cut to shape using a Dremel.

This is what one side looked like before I glued it in place:

I have marked up where I glued and what I used. Make sure you clean all contact surfaces with IPA (or something similar) before gluing. The reason for using the MS Polymer glue was that that bit is further recessed than the top and bottom glue areas so there would be no contact. A bead of MS Polymer glue would bridge the gap. Gluing that middle section is not really necessary but I had already bought the glue so thought "why not"! After the blanking plate was glued in place, I also used the MS Polymer glue to fill the small gaps marked in yellow which are recessed. Again, not really necessary but as I had the glue anyway, may as well go 100% with the air flow blocking. N.B. Solvent weld glue dries really fast, so if you are going to use both glues, put the MS Polymer glue on first then be prepared to place the blanking plate in place as soon as you have put the solvent weld glue on. The first time, I had to put more solvent weld on because it had mostly dried before I put the blanking plate in place. I left the grill in a warm place for 48 hours for the MS Polymer glue to fully cure.

The finished result:

With the solvent weld glue, there is no way these are coming off!

Fitting was a pain made worse by the construction of the Aliexpress grill. Getting the original grill off was a bit of a struggle but not too bad if you are patient.

The instructions I used for grill removal removed the connectors from parking sensors but this is a two year old car and the connections were so oxidised that there was no way they were coming out, especially with the limited room you have to work in (and yes I did open the securing tab first). Instead I just popped the whole sensor out of the grill. You may also notice my blacked out roundel that I did prior to this. I have never liked the electric blue on a Dravit Grey car. The idea for this came from @Jake in this post https://www.i4talk.com/threads/i4-m...lci-front-grill-part-number-and-fitting.12373/page-4?post_id=270478#post-270478

Having got this far, I thought the rest would be easy but fitting the Aliexpress grill, one of the holders for the parking sensors snapped off:

As you can see, they are glued in place with a very limited contact area. I'm not impressed. So I had to take the grill back off to fix this (after I stopped crying) and getting it off again, the other sensor holder snapped. Fortunately, with the solvent weld glue, I was able to make a quick repair, this time gluing the whole contact area. N.B. There is a gloss spray on the receiving side so make sure you sand that all off before gluing (sand both sides of the joint) and clean with IPA (or something similar).

Fitting any grill is a bit of a struggle because of the limited working space to get the sensors and camera back in. The camera is a particular pain because it has a right angled connector and you have to get the grill really close before the cable will fit through the hole it goes through.

So the finished result, before and after. You will see the before had already been wrapped and blacked out so the transformation isn't as dramatic as for some people but I much prefer how the horizontal bars match the horizontal bars of the elements on the right and left of the front of the car.

Costs of this project (including VAT):

• Grill £131.19 (including number plate mount and VAT)
• ABS Sheet £21.50 (£7.50 of that was carriage because of the size)
• Solvent Weld Glue £8
• MS Polymer Glue £9

Would I do this again? Not sure. I did this because I had already bought the grill and didn't want the hassle of sending it back. Some parts of it was fun, it was an interesting project, also frustrating at times with a few dead ends but I learnt a lot (especially about glue!) If I do it again (I intend to keep the car a long time and don't know how well any grill holds up to wear and tear), I would strongly consider the better quality of the LCI grill and just keep my blacked out sensor cover instead of buying the LCI one (which is very expensive). Who knows? I have no particular preference for the look of either grill. I hope at least this write up will help others wishing to do the same and save them some of the wasted time and hassle I had.

 

[generic.user]

After a few false starts, I finally got around to modifying and fitting my Aliexpress grill a few weeks ago.

As discussed, I'm not happy about there being ventilation slots in the top half of the grill and was looking for some way to blank them off. I'm not saying it will cause an issue, or other people should do the same, I just personally don't like the idea of fitting something that gives a different air flow to the original.

From an earlier suggestion, I bought some black acrylic to cut and glue on the back of the grill. I originally planned to use a single piece each size, curved to the shape of the grill. I've never worked with acrylic sheet and the thinnest I could find was 2mm. When I got it, I realised it was very stiff and would at least have to be clamped while glued to get the curve and would still leave a lot of stress on the join. I decided instead to cut strips to glue over each hole and use a black MS Polymer glue to secure it. I looked at a lot of glues for this project. For those not familiar with this glue (I wasn't), it is like bathroom sealant, flexible and can be used to also fill gaps, but the bond is much stronger than bathroom sealant.

Once I had my supplies, I tried to cut the acrylic to find that it is very brittle and bits easily snapped off as you tried to make a cut. Back to the drawing board.

I looked at using something else and found that you can just buy sheets of ABS plastic (the same material as the grill). Unfortunately the area I needed to cover is slightly wider than A4 so I had to buy a bigger sheet than I wanted but I could get it 1mm thick. When it arrived I found it much more flexible and as the grill and sheet were ABS, I could use a solvent weld glue (the sort of thing used for permanent joins of plastic pipes) which dries in seconds and forms a really strong bond. I was ready to go!

Firstly I made a paper template by laying a sheet of A3 paper over the back of the grill and using a scalpel to cut around the edge. It was a bit rough but sufficient for my purpose:

View attachment 46463

I drew around it on ABS sheet and found it was easy to cut to shape using a Dremel.

This is what one side looked like before I glued it in place:

View attachment 46464

I have marked up where I glued and what I used. Make sure you clean all contact surfaces with IPA (or something similar) before gluing. The reason for using the MS Polymer glue was that that bit is further recessed than the top and bottom glue areas so there would be no contact. A bead of MS Polymer glue would bridge the gap. Gluing that middle section is not really necessary but I had already bought the glue so thought "why not"! After the blanking plate was glued in place, I also used the MS Polymer glue to fill the small gaps marked in yellow which are recessed. Again, not really necessary but as I had the glue anyway, may as well go 100% with the air flow blocking. N.B. Solvent weld glue dries really fast, so if you are going to use both glues, put the MS Polymer glue on first then be prepared to place the blanking plate in place as soon as you have put the solvent weld glue on. The first time, I had to put more solvent weld on because it had mostly dried before I put the blanking plate in place. I left the grill in a warm place for 48 hours for the MS Polymer glue to fully cure.

The finished result:

View attachment 46465

With the solvent weld glue, there is no way these are coming off!

Fitting was a pain made worse by the construction of the Aliexpress grill. Getting the original grill off was a bit of a struggle but not too bad if you are patient.

View attachment 46466

The instructions I used for grill removal removed the connectors from parking sensors but this is a two year old car and the connections were so oxidised that there was no way they were coming out, especially with the limited room you have to work in (and yes I did open the securing tab first). Instead I just popped the whole sensor out of the grill. You may also notice my blacked out roundel that I did prior to this. I have never liked the electric blue on a Dravit Grey car. The idea for this came from @Jake in this post https://www.i4talk.com/threads/i4-m...lci-front-grill-part-number-and-fitting.12373/page-4?post_id=270478#post-270478

View attachment 46471

View attachment 46472

Having got this far, I thought the rest would be easy but fitting the Aliexpress grill, one of the holders for the parking sensors snapped off:

View attachment 46467

As you can see, they are glued in place with a very limited contact area. I'm not impressed. So I had to take the grill back off to fix this (after I stopped crying) and getting it off again, the other sensor holder snapped. Fortunately, with the solvent weld glue, I was able to make a quick repair, this time gluing the whole contact area. N.B. There is a gloss spray on the receiving side so make sure you sand that all off before gluing (sand both sides of the joint) and clean with IPA (or something similar).

Fitting any grill is a bit of a struggle because of the limited working space to get the sensors and camera back in. The camera is a particular pain because it has a right angled connector and you have to get the grill really close before the cable will fit through the hole it goes through.

So the finished result, before and after. You will see the before had already been wrapped and blacked out so the transformation isn't as dramatic as for some people but I much prefer how the horizontal bars match the horizontal bars of the elements on the right and left of the front of the car.

View attachment 46468

View attachment 46469

Costs of this project (including VAT):

• Grill £131.19
• ABS Sheet £21.50 (£7.50 of that was carriage because of the size)
• Solvent Weld Glue £8
• MS Polymer Glue £9

Would I do this again? Not sure. I did this because I had already bought the grill and didn't want the hassle of sending it back. Some parts of it was fun, it was an interesting project, also frustrating at times with a few dead ends but I learnt a lot (especially about glue!) If I do it again (I intend to keep the car a long time and don't know how well any grill holds up to wear and tear), I would strongly consider the better quality of the LCI grill and just keep my blacked out sensor cover instead of buying the LCI one (which is very expensive). Who knows? I have no particular preference for the look of either grill. I hope at least this write up will help others wishing to do the same and save them some of the wasted time and hassle I had.

Awesome, detailed writeup @J_P . Thanks! I've also been thinking of using @Jake 's method to black out my rondels. Did you have to take either of them off to black out the blue rings? I'm surprised both of you were able to completely eliminate the background blue surrounds so well. If it's doable without taking them off, I'm definitely going to attempt this. I really don't want to mess around with adhesive, etc. taking the back one off.

 

[J_P]

Did you have to take either of them off to black out the blue rings?

No.

I've never wrapped anything before. The back one is much easier than the front. Obviously when you put the back one on, it is all wrinkled where it curves over but a hot air gun smooths all that out. I know that is how wrap works but it still seems pretty magic!

The front one is a pain. If you look at it, the blue is recessed behind the centre section. To cover all the blue, the inside diameter of the wrap ring is smaller than the centre section, so you have to slightly stretch it over and as you do that, the wrap keeps sticking to the edge of the centre section. On my first attempt, after struggling for a while I decided to cut the ring and try that but that only made it harder to position correctly. Second attempt with a new ring I just persisted until I got it in place. You will also need something like a cotton bud to smooth the wrap down, particularly around the edges.

I found it quite difficult cutting the quarter circles for the middle and getting the size exactly right. You can buy them online, which is what I did, but found out the pack that was for all badges didn't actually have any that fitted the rear badge which is quite large. So I ended up having to cut those anyway.

Get decent quality wrap, I used 3M 2080. Make sure you order gloss (it comes in matt as well!) The cutter I bought (the same that @Jake used) is a bit cheap and cheerful. I found the best way to use it was to turn the vinyl round rather than rotate the cutter. If I did the latter, I found the centre point could wander a little so the start of the circle didn't quite match the end! I thought I would have loads left over from my 30x20 cm sheet of wrap but with all my false starts and retries I only just had enough. The wrap cost me £8, the cutter £7.

At least with this project, if it all goes horribly wrong or you don't like it, you can just abandon it and nothing is lost! I love the results, especially on a grey car, but my wife has said she prefers the blue 😔. She says it was like the car smiling at you!

 

[Yuppie Scum]

Interesting, i didn't realize we have a radiator back there.

 

[8853]

After a few false starts, I finally got around to modifying and fitting my Aliexpress grill a few weeks ago.

As discussed, I'm not happy about there being ventilation slots in the top half of the grill and was looking for some way to blank them off. I'm not saying it will cause an issue, or other people should do the same, I just personally don't like the idea of fitting something that gives a different air flow to the original.

From an earlier suggestion, I bought some black acrylic to cut and glue on the back of the grill. I originally planned to use a single piece each size, curved to the shape of the grill. I've never worked with acrylic sheet and the thinnest I could find was 2mm. When I got it, I realised it was very stiff and would at least have to be clamped while glued to get the curve and would still leave a lot of stress on the join. I decided instead to cut strips to glue over each hole and use a black MS Polymer glue to secure it. I looked at a lot of glues for this project. For those not familiar with this glue (I wasn't), it is like bathroom sealant, flexible and can be used to also fill gaps, but the bond is much stronger than bathroom sealant.

Once I had my supplies, I tried to cut the acrylic to find that it is very brittle and bits easily snapped off as you tried to make a cut. Back to the drawing board.

I looked at using something else and found that you can just buy sheets of ABS plastic (the same material as the grill). Unfortunately the area I needed to cover is slightly wider than A4 so I had to buy a bigger sheet than I wanted but I could get it 1mm thick. When it arrived I found it much more flexible and as the grill and sheet were ABS, I could use a solvent weld glue (the sort of thing used for permanent joins of plastic pipes) which dries in seconds and forms a really strong bond. I was ready to go!

Firstly I made a paper template by laying a sheet of A3 paper over the back of the grill and using a scalpel to cut around the edge. It was a bit rough but sufficient for my purpose:

View attachment 46463

I drew around it on ABS sheet and found it was easy to cut to shape using a Dremel.

This is what one side looked like before I glued it in place:

View attachment 46464

I have marked up where I glued and what I used. Make sure you clean all contact surfaces with IPA (or something similar) before gluing. The reason for using the MS Polymer glue was that that bit is further recessed than the top and bottom glue areas so there would be no contact. A bead of MS Polymer glue would bridge the gap. Gluing that middle section is not really necessary but I had already bought the glue so thought "why not"! After the blanking plate was glued in place, I also used the MS Polymer glue to fill the small gaps marked in yellow which are recessed. Again, not really necessary but as I had the glue anyway, may as well go 100% with the air flow blocking. N.B. Solvent weld glue dries really fast, so if you are going to use both glues, put the MS Polymer glue on first then be prepared to place the blanking plate in place as soon as you have put the solvent weld glue on. The first time, I had to put more solvent weld on because it had mostly dried before I put the blanking plate in place. I left the grill in a warm place for 48 hours for the MS Polymer glue to fully cure.

The finished result:

View attachment 46465

With the solvent weld glue, there is no way these are coming off!

Fitting was a pain made worse by the construction of the Aliexpress grill. Getting the original grill off was a bit of a struggle but not too bad if you are patient.

View attachment 46466

The instructions I used for grill removal removed the connectors from parking sensors but this is a two year old car and the connections were so oxidised that there was no way they were coming out, especially with the limited room you have to work in (and yes I did open the securing tab first). Instead I just popped the whole sensor out of the grill. You may also notice my blacked out roundel that I did prior to this. I have never liked the electric blue on a Dravit Grey car. The idea for this came from @Jake in this post https://www.i4talk.com/threads/i4-m...lci-front-grill-part-number-and-fitting.12373/page-4?post_id=270478#post-270478

View attachment 46471

View attachment 46472

Having got this far, I thought the rest would be easy but fitting the Aliexpress grill, one of the holders for the parking sensors snapped off:

View attachment 46467

As you can see, they are glued in place with a very limited contact area. I'm not impressed. So I had to take the grill back off to fix this (after I stopped crying) and getting it off again, the other sensor holder snapped. Fortunately, with the solvent weld glue, I was able to make a quick repair, this time gluing the whole contact area. N.B. There is a gloss spray on the receiving side so make sure you sand that all off before gluing (sand both sides of the joint) and clean with IPA (or something similar).

Fitting any grill is a bit of a struggle because of the limited working space to get the sensors and camera back in. The camera is a particular pain because it has a right angled connector and you have to get the grill really close before the cable will fit through the hole it goes through.

So the finished result, before and after. You will see the before had already been wrapped and blacked out so the transformation isn't as dramatic as for some people but I much prefer how the horizontal bars match the horizontal bars of the elements on the right and left of the front of the car.

View attachment 46468

View attachment 46469

Costs of this project (including VAT):

• Grill £131.19
• ABS Sheet £21.50 (£7.50 of that was carriage because of the size)
• Solvent Weld Glue £8
• MS Polymer Glue £9

Would I do this again? Not sure. I did this because I had already bought the grill and didn't want the hassle of sending it back. Some parts of it was fun, it was an interesting project, also frustrating at times with a few dead ends but I learnt a lot (especially about glue!) If I do it again (I intend to keep the car a long time and don't know how well any grill holds up to wear and tear), I would strongly consider the better quality of the LCI grill and just keep my blacked out sensor cover instead of buying the LCI one (which is very expensive). Who knows? I have no particular preference for the look of either grill. I hope at least this write up will help others wishing to do the same and save them some of the wasted time and hassle I had.

Omg… that’s stunning.

absolutely gorgeous……

the aggressiveness of the grill plus the blacked out rings on the Dravit… its perfect!

 

[J_P]

If I do it again (I intend to keep the car a long time and don't know how well any grill holds up to wear and tear), I would strongly consider the better quality of the LCI grill and just keep my blacked out sensor cover instead of buying the LCI one (which is very expensive). Who knows? I have no particular preference for the look of either grill.

I wrote that a couple of months ago but I must admit that having seen more of the LCI grills, I do prefer the AliExpress grill's look for my car, even though it isn't as well made. If I have to replace it, I would stick with this grill. Now I know the pitfalls and how to get around them its a pretty straight forward job to modify the grill the way I want it.

BTW, if you do do the blacked out roundels, go easy with the jet wash...

I did manage to find the piece, let it dry and stuck it back on, where it has remained since.

 

[Neon001]

I'm looking to pick up one of these grilles from AliExpress, but it appears all of the links provided here are no longer valid. I've tried searching many different words/phrases but nothing has yielded the grilles for the pre-LCI i4 m50, even looking through dozens of pages of results. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful. I've only got Parking Assistant Package and no other relevant features, if that factors.

 

[aquazi]

I'm looking to pick up one of these grilles from AliExpress, but it appears all of the links provided here are no longer valid. I've tried searching many different words/phrases but nothing has yielded the grilles for the pre-LCI i4 m50, even looking through dozens of pages of results. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful. I've only got Parking Assistant Package and no other relevant features, if that factors.

I got one 2 weeks ago… from aliexpress - a uk seller - so no tax or shipping - only cost £94 with a coins discount.
I just found this on AliExpress: ￡153.95 | Gloss Black Front Bumper Kidney Grille Grill For BMW 4 Series G26 4-Door i4 Gran Coupe 2022-2024

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyeKPsO