richbe
03-08-2006, 09:30 PM
There isn’t a modding forum section on here, so I figure I’ll just stick it in the general section – might be useful to some of the 10 other M5 owners on here. Total job time about 4-5 hours. Would probably be a little quicker if I could ever be arsed to do it again.
Tools required
1) can of light paint
2) handy flat edged screw driver for popping clips off
3) drill bit, I think mine is about a 10 or 12mm, just needs to fit in between the grill lattice sections
4) 8mm and 10mm sockets
5) T50 torx bit
6) 3/8 ratchet wrench
7) Cutter dremmel bit
8) Grinder dremmel bit
9) Drill
10) Jigsaw – easy or small hand saw – a bit more effort
Think that’s about it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/tools.jpg
Having bought my M5 and with a ring trip imminent I knew that if there was one thing that needed sorting it was going to have to be the brakes.
I searched all the common sites for carrying this out, but none seemed to offer a start to finish guide that made complete sense to me. And more importantly, they all left the front with a none OEM look, either holes drilled into the mesh panel, or cut out completely, or drain ducts put in, none of them really did it for me.
So here’s another solution
The original panels in the bumper are blanked off where the brake ducts will be fitted, so I need to open these up.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Before-ext.jpg
First remove the bumper.
You also need to remove the forward wheel arch liners.
On the drivers side there is a temperature sensor recessed into the liner. You can see that in the pic below, it sits under the silver heat reflecting foil - actually it doesn't look very silver in the picture here, but a quick look under the front bumper and you would see it slightly recessed into the liner. Unclip it from underneath first and push the wire back through the holw
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Liner-left.jpg
Then you need to reach under the liner where it extends forward to the front bumper, in the four indents are 4 10mm bolts that also need to be removed. You can see all the mounting points quite clearly below
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/liner-right.jpg
Make sure you have some old towels on the ground to rest it on. Also be careful of the PDC / headlamp washer hose / and fog light connections, I didn’t need to disconnect any of them, but then I haven’t got front mounted PDC - the hose and fog light wires had enough flex in them.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/bumper-off.jpg
Next thing is to remove the grill section itself, again this is pretty easy, it is held on with small clips like these
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/clips-on-grill2.jpg
You may have to get some more clips from the dealer before you start as they bend easily, half of mine were missing anyway and those that were left had rusted. A bit of careful manoeuvring then gets the grill out in its entirety.
Ok so I didn’t take a picture of it in this state but basically it is exactly the shape of the lower opening on the bumper.
The first thing to do is remove as much of the central material between each lattice section as possible. The top row of holes already exist in the grill, the easiest way to remove the remaining sections is to drill them. I did a few holes before I removed it see below. But once it was out I drilled each lattice section that was blocked and big enough to fit the drill bit in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/other-bolt.jpg
This is the state that I have seen on the brake duct guide on M5Board, but I think it is to restrictive, a quick calculation indicates that the ducts are only opened by about 40% of their total area, and it looks a bit DIY
Follow the links, this is an example of just the holes drilled -
http://www.louv.tv/cars/m5/ducts/
http://tinyurl.co.uk/revs
So out with the Dremmel. You can see the bit that I used in the pic back at the top. Its reasonably sized because I knew I would have quite a lot of material to remove and I didn’t want to spend too long doing it. With a bit of practise this actually becomes quite easy and quick.
Here is a part finished section
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/half-dremelled.jpg
Keep going and you should get somewhere like this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/dremmel-complete-close.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/complete-rhs-far.jpg
Basically it matches the standard grill opening and only on close up inspection can you tell it has been cut out. If I had bought another smaller bit for the dremmel I could have got further into the corners of the lattice, but that wouldn’t have made a great deal more difference, and at about 1 hour per side (I didn’t actually time it, so it may have been less than that) I couldn’t be bothered.
So onto the ducts. First thing to do is cut out the liners. This is easy, taking a tip I have seen on one of the guides, part fit the liners again with the bumper off, so they are in their correct position in the wheel arch. Spray a can of light paint down the existing aluminium duct so that a nice outline is left on the liner. This will be the guide for cutting.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/sprayed-liner.jpg
Then drill at each corner point on the outline, jigsaw between the holes and trim with the dremmel again to get a nice finish, refit to the car a couple of times to make sure the alignment is good and the duct exit. Stick them to one side for the moment – bit like Blue Peter this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/liners-cut.jpg
Clip the ducts back in place temporarily, just to check –
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/inside-lh-wheel-arch.jpg
Looking good
So fitting the ducts.
Fitting the ducts. Well I didn’t actually take photos of these but the part number are as per the other guides in the links above.
Air Duct Left: 51-11-7-890-013
Air Duct Right: 51-11-7-890-014
This is pretty simple, slide them into the aluminium ducts already in place under the engine.
Left hand side
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/look-down-rhs.jpg
Right hand side
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/look-down-lhs.jpg
It’ll look a bit like this with the ducts in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/font-of-car-no-bumper-1.jpg
Previous solutions I have seen to hold the ducts in place involve zip tying the ducts to the grill but this looks a bit DIY. Another solution I have seen is to bolt them into the existing aluminium ducts a much cleaner and solid solution.
The most important thing here is to make sure they butt hard up against the grill ensuring no gaps and maximum cold air ducting. With the bumper back on and a little bit of balancing of drill and holding duct up against the bumper I put a couple of holes through and with some short bolts and lock nuts locked everything tight into place.
Not the best view here but this is the view of the aluminium ducts showing the locations of the bolt holes, any further to the left and you’d miss the end of the plastic duct.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/screws-holding-duct-in-plac.jpg
So that’s it, refit the grill into the bumper, refit the bumper and wheel arch liners.
The result –
BEFORE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Before-ext.jpg
AFTER
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/bumper-on-close-up.jpg
LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE DUCT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/looking-up-duct-1.jpg
Overall the finish is great, looking at it it looks completely stock, no sign without very close inspection that it’s had any change to it at all and I think the air flow should be close to 90% of what might be achieved if I cut the whole thing out and just left a gaping hole. (that’s actually how the OEM set up is on the new 6 so it’d probably look ok)
Tools required
1) can of light paint
2) handy flat edged screw driver for popping clips off
3) drill bit, I think mine is about a 10 or 12mm, just needs to fit in between the grill lattice sections
4) 8mm and 10mm sockets
5) T50 torx bit
6) 3/8 ratchet wrench
7) Cutter dremmel bit
8) Grinder dremmel bit
9) Drill
10) Jigsaw – easy or small hand saw – a bit more effort
Think that’s about it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/tools.jpg
Having bought my M5 and with a ring trip imminent I knew that if there was one thing that needed sorting it was going to have to be the brakes.
I searched all the common sites for carrying this out, but none seemed to offer a start to finish guide that made complete sense to me. And more importantly, they all left the front with a none OEM look, either holes drilled into the mesh panel, or cut out completely, or drain ducts put in, none of them really did it for me.
So here’s another solution
The original panels in the bumper are blanked off where the brake ducts will be fitted, so I need to open these up.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Before-ext.jpg
First remove the bumper.
You also need to remove the forward wheel arch liners.
On the drivers side there is a temperature sensor recessed into the liner. You can see that in the pic below, it sits under the silver heat reflecting foil - actually it doesn't look very silver in the picture here, but a quick look under the front bumper and you would see it slightly recessed into the liner. Unclip it from underneath first and push the wire back through the holw
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Liner-left.jpg
Then you need to reach under the liner where it extends forward to the front bumper, in the four indents are 4 10mm bolts that also need to be removed. You can see all the mounting points quite clearly below
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/liner-right.jpg
Make sure you have some old towels on the ground to rest it on. Also be careful of the PDC / headlamp washer hose / and fog light connections, I didn’t need to disconnect any of them, but then I haven’t got front mounted PDC - the hose and fog light wires had enough flex in them.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/bumper-off.jpg
Next thing is to remove the grill section itself, again this is pretty easy, it is held on with small clips like these
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/clips-on-grill2.jpg
You may have to get some more clips from the dealer before you start as they bend easily, half of mine were missing anyway and those that were left had rusted. A bit of careful manoeuvring then gets the grill out in its entirety.
Ok so I didn’t take a picture of it in this state but basically it is exactly the shape of the lower opening on the bumper.
The first thing to do is remove as much of the central material between each lattice section as possible. The top row of holes already exist in the grill, the easiest way to remove the remaining sections is to drill them. I did a few holes before I removed it see below. But once it was out I drilled each lattice section that was blocked and big enough to fit the drill bit in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/other-bolt.jpg
This is the state that I have seen on the brake duct guide on M5Board, but I think it is to restrictive, a quick calculation indicates that the ducts are only opened by about 40% of their total area, and it looks a bit DIY
Follow the links, this is an example of just the holes drilled -
http://www.louv.tv/cars/m5/ducts/
http://tinyurl.co.uk/revs
So out with the Dremmel. You can see the bit that I used in the pic back at the top. Its reasonably sized because I knew I would have quite a lot of material to remove and I didn’t want to spend too long doing it. With a bit of practise this actually becomes quite easy and quick.
Here is a part finished section
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/half-dremelled.jpg
Keep going and you should get somewhere like this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/dremmel-complete-close.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/complete-rhs-far.jpg
Basically it matches the standard grill opening and only on close up inspection can you tell it has been cut out. If I had bought another smaller bit for the dremmel I could have got further into the corners of the lattice, but that wouldn’t have made a great deal more difference, and at about 1 hour per side (I didn’t actually time it, so it may have been less than that) I couldn’t be bothered.
So onto the ducts. First thing to do is cut out the liners. This is easy, taking a tip I have seen on one of the guides, part fit the liners again with the bumper off, so they are in their correct position in the wheel arch. Spray a can of light paint down the existing aluminium duct so that a nice outline is left on the liner. This will be the guide for cutting.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/sprayed-liner.jpg
Then drill at each corner point on the outline, jigsaw between the holes and trim with the dremmel again to get a nice finish, refit to the car a couple of times to make sure the alignment is good and the duct exit. Stick them to one side for the moment – bit like Blue Peter this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/liners-cut.jpg
Clip the ducts back in place temporarily, just to check –
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/inside-lh-wheel-arch.jpg
Looking good
So fitting the ducts.
Fitting the ducts. Well I didn’t actually take photos of these but the part number are as per the other guides in the links above.
Air Duct Left: 51-11-7-890-013
Air Duct Right: 51-11-7-890-014
This is pretty simple, slide them into the aluminium ducts already in place under the engine.
Left hand side
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/look-down-rhs.jpg
Right hand side
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/look-down-lhs.jpg
It’ll look a bit like this with the ducts in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/font-of-car-no-bumper-1.jpg
Previous solutions I have seen to hold the ducts in place involve zip tying the ducts to the grill but this looks a bit DIY. Another solution I have seen is to bolt them into the existing aluminium ducts a much cleaner and solid solution.
The most important thing here is to make sure they butt hard up against the grill ensuring no gaps and maximum cold air ducting. With the bumper back on and a little bit of balancing of drill and holding duct up against the bumper I put a couple of holes through and with some short bolts and lock nuts locked everything tight into place.
Not the best view here but this is the view of the aluminium ducts showing the locations of the bolt holes, any further to the left and you’d miss the end of the plastic duct.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/screws-holding-duct-in-plac.jpg
So that’s it, refit the grill into the bumper, refit the bumper and wheel arch liners.
The result –
BEFORE
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/Before-ext.jpg
AFTER
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/bumper-on-close-up.jpg
LOOKING OUT THROUGH THE DUCT
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Tricky/looking-up-duct-1.jpg
Overall the finish is great, looking at it it looks completely stock, no sign without very close inspection that it’s had any change to it at all and I think the air flow should be close to 90% of what might be achieved if I cut the whole thing out and just left a gaping hole. (that’s actually how the OEM set up is on the new 6 so it’d probably look ok)