05-14-2015, 12:46 AM | #1 |
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DIY - F30 M-Performance Aero Front Lip/Splitter Install
This information has been scattered piece-meal in various postings and threads throughout the F30 forum. My apologies for that. I decided to just finally consolidate the information into one place for convenience to make it easier to reference moving forward. For those who don't need a lengthy explanation of every step of this procedure, here is the short version of the install procedure that covers the essential parts of the install.
I just also wanted to acknowledge Dippydo for providing a lot of the useful tips and techniques used in this install that made mine go smooth and error-free. He is the man --- This is a DIY for installing a BMW F30 M-Performance Aero Front Lip/Splitter to an M-Sport front bumper. This Lip/Splitter can be purchased as an OEM part (part # 51192291364) or as a replica from any number of after-market vendors widely available on Ebay or other sources. Disclaimers
A. Front Lip/Splitter – main part you are installing on your F30 M-Sport bumper. . Prep WorkPrep-Work Before you jack up the car, there is some pre-work that needs to be done to prep your lip for install. This will actually take the majority of the install time.
Jacking up your F30 You might be able to skip this entire section completely, if you are riding at stock height. If you find that you have enough clearance to slip the Lip/Adapter assembly right underneath the bumper, you just saved yourself about 15-30 minutes. If so, the most you might need is a mirror to see where the holes are in the bumper to align them to the holes in the Lip. However, if you find you need to jack up the car, then read on ... Jacking up your F30 is actually more difficult than it sounds as I am convinced that BMW designed the car in such a way to discourage the average joe from getting their F30 off the ground. This is because there are only 3 jack points on the front of an F30 that can be used, and two of them (sides) require a special adapter. And if you have a car that’s lowered, you have additional challenges. If this is the case, and need to jack up your car, you still might be able to skip step #1 of this section, if your car is not lowered to the point where you still have enough clearance for you to slip a floor jack under the front of your car, and you have enough vertical room to pump the jack’s lever up/down to get the car up, you are lucky. Just make sure that you are on a flat surface before you attempt to jack your car up. Jacking your car up on an incline is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs as this can cause severe injury and/or death should your car fall/roll off the jacks.
Lip Install To be honest, once you get to this point, its all downhill from here. The rest of this will take you tops 15 mins max (if you don't need to do any drilling!!). You’ve done the hard work already, the rest is cake. Here is what the Lip/Adapter assembly looks like once you have them fastened together. There are 4 holes on each side that will be used to secure it to the bumper. You will need to make sure that there are corresponding holes in the M-Sport bumper to do the attachment.
There are always people who will want to go the extra mile to insure that whatever they are installing is extra secure. For those in that category, there's good news for you There are actually 4 additional holes (on each side so 8 total) on the inner adapter that gives you additional security to insure your lip is extra secured to the bumper. The four holes are circled in red in the picture below: The bad news is that once you insert the Adapter into the Lip (done in the pre-work stage), you can't access these holes to make use of them. In addition, it seems like these holes are seldom used by anyone - the factory, and dealerships alike, so it will require drilling 8 additional 6mm holes in order to use them. It will be very rare that these holes will already come pre-drilled in your M-Sport bumper. So... if you want to utilize these extra holes, you'll need to do some drilling and you'll need to change the order in which you do the install. Its not too big of a change, but enough that makes it less convenient, you will will have to install the Adapter first, then the Lip separately, later. So the new order of install would be: 1) Take the Adapter by itself and hold it up to the bumper, and mark the center of these 8 extra holes using a Sharpie. Set the Adapter aside. 2) Drill these extra 4 bracket holes in the bumper on each side (so 8 total) using the 6mm drill bit (or a 1/4" drill bit). It goes through the bumper like butter 3) Insert rivets into these extra bracket holes FIRST to pre-secure bracket-only to bumper 4) THEN attach the 10 c-clips/screws to secure the Lip to the already installed Adapter. So you would have to do these 10 c-clips/screws upside down under the car instead of in your living room as pre-work. That makes the install a little more difficult, and little less convenient. 5) Attach rivets to #1, #2, #3, #4 (for both sides, so 8 total) as usual to attach Lip/Adapter assembly to bumper 6) Screw 2 center screws through the Lip/Adapter assembly center to bumper . Finished Work . Go grab a beer and enjoy the fruits of your labor! . . Last edited by squidlyboy; 04-26-2016 at 04:13 PM.. |
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05-26-2015, 08:19 PM | #2 |
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Bro, you are the man! Thanks for all the help, the comments, posts/threads and pictures you have posted are excellent even a novice can do this install after reading this thread, I know I will. Thanks again! If you are ever in NYC I owe you a beer! or 2 or 3.... lol
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05-26-2015, 09:28 PM | #3 |
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dude... i LOVE New York and LOVE BEER even MORE - don't tempt me because i will make YOU PAY
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05-26-2015, 11:38 PM | #4 |
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05-27-2015, 01:27 AM | #5 |
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Thank god my car came with this lip....but dayam...you sir are the $h!t! This DIY was almost as badass as that DIY ramp.
Thank you for sharing this! I'm sure it will be helpful for MANY people!! This type of thread is what these forums are all about! |
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08-01-2015, 05:32 PM | #7 | |
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Its a little daunting when you first look under there, because you'll only see the underbody shield. However, if you look close enough, there will be some indentations on the shield that will mark where you need to hit. Here are some pics of the underbody shield removed so that you can see what's underneath... The yellow highlighted square is the service panel for the oil drain plug, but you DONT want to hit there... trust me. You need to hit the jack point between the two yellow lines. This is the area where the chassis cross bar runs across the front of the car and its directly in the center of the two front wheels. Last edited by squidlyboy; 08-01-2015 at 05:42 PM.. |
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08-13-2015, 03:28 PM | #8 |
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squidlyboy,
Just got done installing mine on my F31 following your write up. Oustanding work.....thanks so much for your hard work and making a great contribution!!!! ❗️
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Last edited by scostu; 08-14-2015 at 05:25 AM.. |
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12-08-2015, 09:55 PM | #11 |
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The black lip blends that mineral grey very naturally ... thats a pretty wicked look right there bro. I don't ever get tired of looking at this m-perf aero lip. nice work!
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Blueeyesredpanda399.50 |
12-16-2015, 04:48 PM | #12 |
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Boliegray,
I have a 335i m sport with the same front splitter and live in Los Angeles. Is your car lowered? If so, how bad do you scrape when leaving parking lots? I really want to put adjustable coilovers on my car to get the right stance but can't fully commit based on potential clearance issues. I already scrape sometimes with the stock ride height. Thanks for the input. Comments from other members are also welcome. |
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12-16-2015, 11:16 PM | #14 |
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Alpine White - my favorite color
Super clean look brutha! Love the painted lip and how your car blends with the sunset sky - great composition! |
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01-10-2016, 09:34 PM | #15 |
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Squidlyboy-
Thank you for posting this DIY... You Saved me a lot of frustration. The recommend additional VHB tape + adhesive promoter and surface prep is absolutely necessary. I have a plastic pop rivet gun so I used this instead of the BMW rivets in a few spots. They seem to fit tighter than the the BMW ones. I Now understand why Squidlyboy stressed getting it Jacked up is the most difficult part. I have a set of Rhino Ramps and they were Effectively Useless for this project. The front of my car just barely cleared the rhino ramps without the front splitter and with the new splitter, forget it. I knew if I had used them it would have torn off the splitter backing it off the ramps. My rolling floor jack also doesn't fit under the car never mind hitting the jack point. I ended up using some 2x8 scraps I had lying around to get it 1.5" off the floor. Definitely not ideal but it was just enough so I could get under it to work. I will definitely be fabricating some more permanent ramps with the steps in the near future. I left it Black and it blends well with the rest of the car. Melbourne Red with black accents. Pictures to follow.
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02-25-2016, 02:18 PM | #16 | |
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Quote:
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03-07-2016, 08:43 PM | #17 |
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About to install the lip and did a pre-fit. Looks like fitting is alright.
My car do not have the lip from factory. What I notice is hole #4 is missing. I guess I will need to drill that hole myself. The pre-drilled holes already have rivets in them. I removed the rivets and they are reusable. This ramp from Amazon that I bought was useless for the install. It didn't even clear the bumper without lip, on stock height, RWD M suspension. Looks like I will need to jack the car up. Scepter 08226 Plastic Automotive Ramp Set - 2 Piece
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03-07-2016, 09:37 PM | #18 |
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drilling through that plastic bumper is the easiest thing in the world. Like going through butter. easiest way is to
1) hold the lip up against the bumper - it fits like a glove so no guess work as to where it goes 2) use a sharpie and mark the spot on the bumper through the hole in the lip 3) drill The hardest part might be needing a second pair of hands to hold the bumper in place while you mark.... or getting the car up high enough so that you get a drill up underneath there. You might be able to get high up enough just driving over a 2x12 or two. If you go more than one, nail them together for stability. |
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03-08-2016, 07:06 AM | #19 | |
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Looks great. This is a piece I feel needs to be painted (at least the end splitters). Looks so unfinished left the matte black imo. |
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03-28-2016, 02:39 PM | #20 |
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DO most of you install the lip unpainted? Just curious As I might add to mine
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03-28-2016, 11:05 PM | #21 |
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depends on the look you're going for. Some have painted the lower lip leaving the black "tabs", some have color matched the "tabs" leaving the lip black. some have color matched the whole lip spoiler too.
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03-29-2016, 03:27 PM | #22 |
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Great thank you for that info!
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