Damaged lip and oil cooler - Need repair recommendations

[rakusak]

Originally Posted by 16M3

I recognize tons of engineering has gone into the oil cooler/engine design etc. However has anyone who owns this car ever had the oil cooler repositioned? Could it be done, is it feasible? I have in the past seen oil coolers on other cars adjacent and parallel to the radiator or on top of the engine..albeit with a functional hood scoop, but you get the gist of my question.

Valid question, and one i'll explore once I get my M in a few months. But from my understanding everything in the engine bay seems pretty packed and perhaps placed the oil cooler at the current position... plus lower location for center of gravity? cooler air?

[hanafimahmoud]

Originally Posted by panzer948

I have been lucky to avoid doing any real damage to my front end till today. I have a Lightweight front lip with a mild drop. I have had this configuration for just over one year. On my way back home from vacation I went across a railroad crossing in a small town with an awkward dip/incline and bam. I pulled over immediately and saw the damage. The jolt was hard enough to somehow warp my oil cooler behind the front lip. It took me another hour to get home from here, which is where I took the attached pics. The lower oil cooler is normally horizontal directly behind the lower bumper (basically hiding it from a view of the front), now it is bent up near the center (gray/sliver frame just behind the front grill).

So was thinking of ordering a replacement front lip since I do not think the lip itself caused the damage (lip appeared to have been pulled down and is now bowed in at the center). I think the low lying (impact) area not only pulled my lip down but the angle somehow impacted the oil cooler and pushed that area up. If the lip did somehow cause my cooler to be bend like it did then I may hesitate to replace it and maybe just get it back to stock. Has anyone seen this kind of damage before and if so could it be from lip being pulled back into the cooler?

The bigger question is what to do about my now bent oil cooler. I am not throwing any codes and have been home a few hours now and see no sign of leaks. I called and a replacement is like $500 and there is no way they will cover this under warranty Should I consider seeing if this could be simply pulled back into position. If the latter, could I be jeopardizing oil cooling performance? Maybe a solution to that is to simply monitor oil cooling to see if I do have a problem. Would hate to find out when really pushing the car. But to be honest, I have yet to track it and only occasionally participated in some serious long term punishment (taken it to Tail of the Dragon twice).

Thanks for any advice!

Same thing happened to me this week, I actually have the same LW lip installed, i did take it off last night but noticed the cooler bent. I took it to BMW dealer today, and scheduled for appointment next Monday. but he mentioned that even though it looks bent, he thinks the cooler is OK. he is saying that something didn't snap in its place. wondering what you ended up doing?!

thanks

[Fast4d]

there is not enough front area to house 11 coolers.....

you can always mount it on the hood or roof baja style!

[THEROK]

Originally Posted by UH_TX

Like what other said get it replaced. I and another member hit something in our neighborhood and had to replace both coolers. Get the Fall line guard. https://ind-distribution.com/product?sku=FLM-F8X-3FSKID

This is a poor placement design and protection by BMW.

Unless IND/xyz had access to a wind tunnel and tens of thousands of miles of testing with data logging, I'll take my chances and stick to the original M engineered design.

[UH_TX]

Originally Posted by THEROK

Unless IND/xyz had access to a wind tunnel and tens of thousands of miles of testing with data logging, I'll take my chances and stick to the original M engineered design.

I guess you never seen the actual OEM piece.

[panzer948]

Originally Posted by hanafimahmoud

Same thing happened to me this week, I actually have the same LW lip installed, i did take it off last night but noticed the cooler bent. I took it to BMW dealer today, and scheduled for appointment next Monday. but he mentioned that even though it looks bent, he thinks the cooler is OK. he is saying that something didn't snap in its place. wondering what you ended up doing?!

thanks

Ah this old post of mine is still bouncing around. I should have actually posted what I ended up doing a long time ago. To make a long story short, I talked to a small BMW specialist shop, who's owner actually lives in my neighborhood. He came out and looked at it first at my house and basically said the same thing. If it is only bent it can be bent back and not require replacement. Within a couple of days I had him drive it to his shop and repair it the same day. He later also replaced my bent LW lip with my new replacement. The new lip ended up being the bulk of my repair cost as his labor was very reasonable to repair bent cooler and replace lip. I probably had all this done within two weeks of the damage. About a month later, a friend of mine totaled his M4 and was willing to sale me his brand new IND metal skid plate that they make to protect the oil cooler (in place of that crappy OEM plastic). We installed it at his garage. I have to admit, I feel much more confident with that skid plate and have not had any trouble since, even though I occasionally hear a minor scrape or two going over speed bumps and curbs.

So... I avoided the dealer. I have no idea how much they will charge to bend your oil cooler back but it is good piece of mind. Definitely let someone (dealer, specialty shop, etc.) do it that can inspect it and make sure there are no cracks. I park mine in the same place (clean garage) and it hasn't dropped a single bit of oil in a year. Thus I feel pretty confident that the repair that was made was sufficient.

Hope this helps.

[hanafimahmoud]

Originally Posted by panzer948

Ah this old post of mine is still bouncing around. I should have actually posted what I ended up doing a long time ago. To make a long story short, I talked to a small BMW specialist shop, who's owner actually lives in my neighborhood. He came out and looked at it first at my house and basically said the same thing. If it is only bent it can be bent back and not require replacement. Within a couple of days I had him drive it to his shop and repair it the same day. He later also replaced my bent LW lip with my new replacement. The new lip ended up being the bulk of my repair cost as his labor was very reasonable to repair bent cooler and replace lip. I probably had all this done within two weeks of the damage. About a month later, a friend of mine totaled his M4 and was willing to sale me his brand new IND metal skid plate that they make to protect the oil cooler (in place of that crappy OEM plastic). We installed it at his garage. I have to admit, I feel much more confident with that skid plate and have not had any trouble since, even though I occasionally hear a minor scrape or two going over speed bumps and curbs.

So... I avoided the dealer. I have no idea how much they will charge to bend your oil cooler back but it is good piece of mind. Definitely let someone (dealer, specialty shop, etc.) do it that can inspect it and make sure there are no cracks. I park mine in the same place (clean garage) and it hasn't dropped a single bit of oil in a year. Thus I feel pretty confident that the repair that was made was sufficient.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, it's scheduled for inspection next Monday, i will keep the thread updated.

[Poiseuille]

Thanks for starting & continuing this thread panzer. Very interesting stuff in here. Regarding bent radiators, I thought the picture below might interest you. So it seems Poiseuille Jr had catastrophic brake failure at the end of the main straight, went into the tire barrier flat out and got launched in a cartwheel right over the barrier, kart landed on the radiator. As you can see, radiator was bent fairly dramatically. Radiator pressure tested OK, raced with it for the rest of that season and all of the next season with no problems at all. Jr has since graduated to faster karts that use a completely different radiator mounted on the opposite side. Not sure whatever became of the bent radiator, wouldn't surprise me if someone's still using it. An important difference between your situation and this is that the kart radiator is right there where we can see it pretty much all the time.

[fivvehundredk]

Originally Posted by panzer948

Ah this old post of mine is still bouncing around. I should have actually posted what I ended up doing a long time ago. To make a long story short, I talked to a small BMW specialist shop, who's owner actually lives in my neighborhood. He came out and looked at it first at my house and basically said the same thing. If it is only bent it can be bent back and not require replacement. Within a couple of days I had him drive it to his shop and repair it the same day. He later also replaced my bent LW lip with my new replacement. The new lip ended up being the bulk of my repair cost as his labor was very reasonable to repair bent cooler and replace lip. I probably had all this done within two weeks of the damage. About a month later, a friend of mine totaled his M4 and was willing to sale me his brand new IND metal skid plate that they make to protect the oil cooler (in place of that crappy OEM plastic). We installed it at his garage. I have to admit, I feel much more confident with that skid plate and have not had any trouble since, even though I occasionally hear a minor scrape or two going over speed bumps and curbs.

So... I avoided the dealer. I have no idea how much they will charge to bend your oil cooler back but it is good piece of mind. Definitely let someone (dealer, specialty shop, etc.) do it that can inspect it and make sure there are no cracks. I park mine in the same place (clean garage) and it hasn't dropped a single bit of oil in a year. Thus I feel pretty confident that the repair that was made was sufficient.

Hope this helps.

sorry to bring this thread up but i am in the same boat as you. do you think i could pull the cooler off the car with the hose still attached and bent it back straight myself? what do you think?

[horsepower_and_hounds]

Originally Posted by panzer948

Ah this old post of mine is still bouncing around. I should have actually posted what I ended up doing a long time ago. To make a long story short, I talked to a small BMW specialist shop, who's owner actually lives in my neighborhood. He came out and looked at it first at my house and basically said the same thing. If it is only bent it can be bent back and not require replacement. Within a couple of days I had him drive it to his shop and repair it the same day. He later also replaced my bent LW lip with my new replacement. The new lip ended up being the bulk of my repair cost as his labor was very reasonable to repair bent cooler and replace lip. I probably had all this done within two weeks of the damage. About a month later, a friend of mine totaled his M4 and was willing to sale me his brand new IND metal skid plate that they make to protect the oil cooler (in place of that crappy OEM plastic). We installed it at his garage. I have to admit, I feel much more confident with that skid plate and have not had any trouble since, even though I occasionally hear a minor scrape or two going over speed bumps and curbs.

So... I avoided the dealer. I have no idea how much they will charge to bend your oil cooler back but it is good piece of mind. Definitely let someone (dealer, specialty shop, etc.) do it that can inspect it and make sure there are no cracks. I park mine in the same place (clean garage) and it hasn't dropped a single bit of oil in a year. Thus I feel pretty confident that the repair that was made was sufficient.

Hope this helps.

Yea...and i want it back!
I am shopping for another skid plate for my new to me old '145 M4 I just picked up. 04/14 MY.... old as dirt

[damageprone]

I believe the Turner skid plate saved me the other week driving around San Diego. There were dips that I didn't see and all I heard was metal hitting hard. Upon inspection there were just minor scratches on the plate.

[tomlong]

I was traveling triple digits on an empty highway early morning hours and went over an unforeseen pothole which immediately was followed by my carbon fiber front instantly getting shattered and destroyed. The crunching noise as you run over a $1k front lip is always music to my ears.

Pulled over to inspect the car for other potential signs of damage. Aside from the destroyed lip, nothing was leaking visually, all engine vitals read normal. Fluids and temp also were at normal levels. Even did the electronic dipstick oil level measure which indicated I was filled up to the max. So started driving home again, had an encounter with a random motorcycle which pushed the car to triple digits again, before arriving home 20mins later. (I live close to Mexico)

As I pull up to my spot everything about the car was normal. No fault codes, all vitals read fine BUT I always check the oil level after any hard runs before turning the car off. So I requested another electronic dipstick measure test and lord be hold, this time my ECU could not perform the test, followed by this drive train malfunction warning:

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_035214.jpg[/IMG]

Instantly I knew right away the "speed bump" must've damaged something.

Hopefully not the dry sump or oil pan so probably the oil cooler, as collaborated by ECU indicating that I could still drive the car, so probably a slow leak. I get out of the car and look down to see:

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_041353.jpg[/IMG]

Luckily I had 7 quarts of fresh motor oil sitting in the garage AND my local performance shop was nearby so I figured it would probably be better to add 2 quarts (no logic to why I chose 2 qts just gut feel) then drive it straight to performance shop. Rather than wait for a tow, especially at 4-5am in the morning. I figured by the time a tow arrived a lot more oil would've been on the ground plus the fault code said I could drive the car, implying slow leak.

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_041316.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_141818.jpg[/IMG]

Got the car there safely and turned off the engine ASAP upon arrival. We ended up ordering just a new OEM oil cooler (we're not sure an aftermarket solution is truly better) AND a Turner motor sport oil cooler guard / skid plate to go along with it for peace of mind. Car was also going to go under the knife for other performance upgrades, so timing seemed to have worked out. I just hope I didn't do any damage to the motor by driving it hard while it was losing oil.

Long story short, I was lucky to have measured the oil again, and at a very high frequency. While these cars are super reliable and can take the abuse, you sometimes never know.

Apologies if this story was overkill. It was the first time this has happened to me. Seeing that much oil on the ground was scary, scarier because the car ran just fine. Also gotta love how the oil cooler is probably the most exposed of the 5+ heat exchangers, but I get it, only so much room left when you're working in such a confined space.

[bsmf8x]

Originally Posted by tomlong

I was traveling triple digits on an empty highway early morning hours and went over an unforeseen pothole which immediately was followed by my carbon fiber front instantly getting shattered and destroyed. The crunching noise as you run over a $1k front lip is always music to my ears.

Pulled over to inspect the car for other potential signs of damage. Aside from the destroyed lip, nothing was leaking visually, all engine vitals read normal. Fluids and temp also were at normal levels. Even did the electronic dipstick oil level measure which indicated I was filled up to the max. So started driving home again, had an encounter with a random motorcycle which pushed the car to triple digits again, before arriving home 20mins later. (I live close to Mexico)

As I pull up to my spot everything about the car was normal. No fault codes, all vitals read fine BUT I always check the oil level after any hard runs before turning the car off. So I requested another electronic dipstick measure test and lord be hold, this time my ECU could not perform the test, followed by this drive train malfunction warning:

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_035214.jpg[/IMG]

Instantly I knew right away the "speed bump" must've damaged something.

Hopefully not the dry sump or oil pan so probably the oil cooler, as collaborated by ECU indicating that I could still drive the car, so probably a slow leak. I get out of the car and look down to see:

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_041353.jpg[/IMG]

Luckily I had 7 quarts of fresh motor oil sitting in the garage AND my local performance shop was nearby so I figured it would probably be better to add 2 quarts (no logic to why I chose 2 qts just gut feel) then drive it straight to performance shop. Rather than wait for a tow, especially at 4-5am in the morning. I figured by the time a tow arrived a lot more oil would've been on the ground plus the fault code said I could drive the car, implying slow leak.

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_041316.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...525_141818.jpg[/IMG]

Got the car there safely and turned off the engine ASAP upon arrival. We ended up ordering just a new OEM oil cooler (we're not sure an aftermarket solution is truly better) AND a Turner motor sport oil cooler guard / skid plate to go along with it for peace of mind. Car was also going to go under the knife for other performance upgrades, so timing seemed to have worked out. I just hope I didn't do any damage to the motor by driving it hard while it was losing oil.

Long story short, I was lucky to have measured the oil again, and at a very high frequency. While these cars are super reliable and can take the abuse, you sometimes never know.

Apologies if this story was overkill. It was the first time this has happened to me. Seeing that much oil on the ground was scary, scarier because the car ran just fine. Also gotta love how the oil cooler is probably the most exposed of the 5+ heat exchangers, but I get it, only so much room left when you're working in such a confined space.

These might be dumb questions but I'm a newbie.

Are you lowered? And are you on 19's or your cars CP or what.

And if you didn't have the lip on would this still have happened ?