[Neon001]

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

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, but that link says "404 Sorry, the page you requested can not be found " as do all of the other links I've found on here for aliexpress. Wonder if it's different country settings or something. Oh well, thanks again for trying.

 

[Fish Fingers]

I thought aliexpress was Chinese, or mostly selling Chinese goods (sorry, never used it).

Is the lack of availability in the US not due to the tariffs/trade war?

 

[aquazi]

I thought aliexpress was Chinese, or mostly selling Chinese goods (sorry, never used it).

Is the lack of availability in the US not due to the tariffs/trade war?

Its a bit like ebay or amazon marketplace… has lots of private business sellers on there… lots only ship to specific regions depending on their location.

Think most of the sellers are Chinese based though… but never had an issue getting stuff to the uk… most arrive within a week.

 

[J_P]

I agree with @Fish Fingers , I suspect you are a victim of the tariff war and Chinese sellers are no longer prepared to sell to the USA because of the additional cost and complication.

 

[Neon001]

Ahh, could be. So be it. I ordered the LCI grill (BMW OEM) from ECS Tuning. A little more expensive, but what am I gonna do...

 

[Fish Fingers]

Ahh, could be. So be it. I ordered the LCI grill (BMW OEM) from ECS Tuning. A little more expensive, but what am I gonna do...

Jump on it imo.....👍

You don't know what you will be able to get if the tariff war turns sour after the 90 day hiatus.

And the EU may just decide not to roll over and take it from DT, like China are also doing.

So high tariffs may well yet be reintroduced.
And OEM parts could dry up in the US (as you are already seeing with aftermarket parts on AliExpress).

The new US shipping taxes may also come into play here, as the world relies on Chinese ships to move goods around the world.

Sorry, slightly off topic, but also relevant with the replacement grille situation.

 

[generic.user]

Hey @Neon001 , I'm sorry those links don't work for you. I suspect the others are right and it might be a tariff thing They still work fine for me, and I see a lot of results for it when I search AliExpress for "i4 grille". Either way, I'm glad you found an alternative option. Your car is going to look much nicer with the LCI grille vs. the original one!

 

[aquazi]

So i’ve had the aliexpress grill fitted for 2 weeks now… while not very scientific (over only a 2 week period) but this does seem to have had an impact on my range. Maybe due to the vents at the top letting more air in. I also fitted a 3D number plates - so that may be a factor also.

I cover 360miles a week for my daily work commute. Same route daily, similar traffic but this week has been cooler than last week.. in the UK.

I do need to compare it over a longer period.

 

[rollermonkey]

More likely weather is nicer so the efficiency is better.

Changing the grill won't reduce the volume of air the car needs to displace, so any change in Cd is miniscule.

 

[aquazi]

More likely weather is nicer so the efficiency is better.

Changing the grill won't reduce the volume of air the car needs to displace, so any change in Cd is miniscule.

I think it probably is weather related… need a longer test compared to my average… however its not the volume of air to displace - but this distribution of the air… as it has upper vents is the air flowing in, and then adding a little resistance… compared to the stock one?

 

[Bront]

I've had my Aliexpress grille waiting to go on to the car when it arrives, it's here now.

Could someone explain the process of installing the licence plate holder? I don't see any positioning holes to drill out for it. What am I missing please?

Thank you

 

[aquazi]

I've had my Aliexpress grille waiting to go on to the car when it arrives, it's here now.

Could someone explain the process of installing the licence plate holder? I don't see any positioning holes to drill out for it. What am I missing please?

Thank you

On a uk/ euro style plate holder i just positioned it and put 2 self tapping screws in to secure it. Then used 3m tape to attach my plate.

 

[Bront]

Then used 3m tape to attach my plate.

Thank you, I'll get some tape tomorrow.

 

[rollermonkey]

I think it probably is weather related… need a longer test compared to my average… however its not the volume of air to displace - but this distribution of the air… as it has upper vents is the air flowing in, and then adding a little resistance… compared to the stock one?

The largest component of drag is a function of area perpendicular to the still air. Our honkin' big flat nose (car front) isn't going to be overwhelmed by some ribs vs nubbins in the middle of that flat face.

 

[bummerbimmer]

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 (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.

I decided to buy an OEM M50 grille for my car last month. Perfect fit or course, and super easy to install.

Your process seems like a ton of work for a grille. Would you do it again, or would you just get OEM for $220 instead?

 

[J_P]

Your process seems like a ton of work for a grille. Would you do it again, or would you just get OEM for $220 instead?

Well it isn't $220 in the UK because you have to add a number plate holder as well which drives the price up. The Aliexpress grill also covers the radar which means you don't have to wrap it (or replace the cover for at a significant cost) if you have the original design with the silver dots. Also, since Brexit, a lot of the cheaper parts suppliers based in the EU won't ship to the UK because of the additional complexity. I can't remember all the figures I've seen in the OEM discussion but I think the cost in the UK typically runs to £400+

It was a lot of hassle working out how to seal the vents but now I have done it (and written it up for others) it is a pretty easy process. Basically you cut out some platic shapes and glue them on, not rocket science and I reckon I could to it in 30-60 minutes. Actually fitting the grill is a lot trickier and you have that whichever solution you go with.

Finally, having seen a lot of pictures of the OEM grill, I do prefer the look of the Aliexpress grill. It is slightly bolder and gives a better match to the styling of the black ribbed elements in the bumper and suits the car better overall IMO. The later OEM grill is a big improvement on the original one but just a bit undertated IMO.

 

[aquazi]

Well it isn't $220 in the UK because you have to add a number plate holder as well which drives the price up. The Aliexpress grill also covers the radar which means you don't have to wrap it (or replace the cover for at a significant cost) if you have the original design with the silver dots. Also, since Brexit, a lot of the cheaper parts suppliers based in the EU won't ship to the UK because of the additional complexity. I can't remember all the figures I've seen in the OEM discussion but I think the cost in the UK typically runs to £400+

It was a lot of hassle working out how to seal the vents but now I have done it (and written it up for others) it is a pretty easy process. Basically you cut out some platic shapes and glue them on, not rocket science and I reckon I could to it in 30-60 minutes. Actually fitting the grill is a lot trickier and you have that whichever solution you go with.

Finally, having seen a lot of pictures of the OEM grill, I do prefer the look of the Aliexpress grill. It is slightly bolder and gives a better match to the styling of the black ribbed elements in the bumper and suits the car better overall IMO. The later OEM grill is a big improvement on the original one but just a bit undertated IMO.

View attachment 49068

FYI - I picked up a lci grill and plate holder from BMW MK - £173 for the grill and £64 for the plate holder. Gave them the vin from an M50 they were selling arrived within a week.

But i prefer the aliexpress grill which i had already bought.

 

[mazz58]

I thought the stock grill was a real eyesore, especially since the rest of the car has gloss black features, and the window frame is black, not chrome. I found this grill on eBay motors for a reasonable price from yesokcarrs, and with the help of a body shop friend, it was changed. Also added the "M" emblem. Much improved!

 

[Mr. Widget]

Agreed, the 2025 standard i4 grille is a disappointment.

 

[Iridium]

Looks good. I’ve never understood what the BMW Design Team were thinking with the original grille. It’s the same with the iX3. Just why?