[Chrykies]

My belly pan (aka "lower engine cover splash shield" p/n 51 75 7 129 341) is showing its age and missing an uncomfortably large chunk where the oil drain flap used to reside. BMW wants my first born.

ECS Tuning sells a "Bremen" aftermarket unit for $80 that is tempting: https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E90-33....0L/ES2637289/

For those of you that have purchased this unit, care to comment on quality/fitment?

[Efthreeoh]

According to ECS it's an OEM part.

[Chrykies]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

According to ECS it's an OEM part.

Well, it is not an OEM part, but made in Taiwan by "Bremmen," apparently an ECS-owned company. ABS plastic is a bit thicker and more flexible than the OE unit, but fitment is quite good and included new speed clips for attaching to the front bumper cover. For $80 you cannot go wrong . . . except that shipping was $32.

[ECSTuning]

As Chrykies said it's a little thicker and slightly more flexible, but fit and finish is pretty much dead on.

-James

[drawz]

Old post, I know, but how's it holding up?

[Chrykies]

I sold the car, but I believe is still holding up well. Fitment was good; a bit more flexible than the OE belly pan, but still solid and worth the substantial savings over the OE unit.

[drawz]

Originally Posted by Chrykies

I sold the car, but I believe is still holding up well. Fitment was good; a bit more flexible than the OE belly pan, but still solid and worth the substantial savings over the OE unit.

Cool. Unfortunately, it's now $85 (on sale, originally $99) but they want $168 shipped to MA!?! And it's not available until April 2019...doh...

[dcorn]

Just did the first oil change on my newly acquired E90 and I found my belly pan in a similar condition. Oil change flap was gone and a big chunk of plastic was broken off near it, plus many cracks in other parts of the pan. Would be nice to get a full replacement piece under there and I'm totally fine with paying $80-100 for it. Sucks that they aren't in stock til April.

[oilcrankinject]

$180 bucks to ship to Waco. Common ECS.

[mkgeurink]

$117 to ship to South Carolina.

Here's an alternative I found for my 335d for $105 tax and shipping included. I just ordered it -- supposed to arrive December 26. I imagine if they have it for the D, they should have it for the gassers too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-Engin...ZptQ:rk:1:pf:0

[9krpmrx8]

I got this for $44.00 shipped. I was expecting it to not be the right part honestly since it said for AWD only and my car is a RWD and I knew the Xdrive model was different. It fit fine, it's not exactly as nice as the OEM felt like piece but it will work.

Part Number: 96148-04078963

https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20...ine_cover.html

[dcorn]

Anyone buy a knockoff from ebay or amazon? I'd really like to get mine put back together. Maybe I'll resort to riveting on aluminum patch panels to fix the stock part.

https://www.amazon.com/CPP-Engine-Sp.../dp/B01M32AB3I

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-Engin...cAAOSwL1Rc0MDb

[Meeni]

https://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/20...ine_cover.html

[9krpmrx8]

The partsgeek one I linked above is working great for me.

[dcorn]

So to update... I bought a knockoff from Amazon and the fit was... fine. It definitely wasn't as structurally sound as the stock part, but it is all in one piece, so I can't complain too much. After a year or so, the pan is sagging pretty badly and doesn't look great.

Soooo I picked up the Turner motorsports albumin belly pan. It took 2 months to get here, but Holy hell is it beefy. 1/8" thick aluminum with rivnuts for installation. Can't wait to get this thing on the car.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by dcorn

So to update... I bought a knockoff from Amazon and the fit was... fine. It definitely wasn't as structurally sound as the stock part, but it is all in one piece, so I can't complain too much. After a year or so, the pan is sagging pretty badly and doesn't look great.

Soooo I picked up the Turner motorsports albumin belly pan. It took 2 months to get here, but Holy hell is it beefy. 1/8" thick aluminum with rivnuts for installation. Can't wait to get this thing on the car.

That is the same one as ECS Tuning sells. I've been waiting since October for mine. It's supposed to ship today. So it's pretty nice, huh? Can't wait.

[Emilime75]

Dang it! That aluminum plate, didn't even know it was something I needed, but now I want it.

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by dcorn

So to update... I bought a knockoff from Amazon and the fit was... fine. It definitely wasn't as structurally sound as the stock part, but it is all in one piece, so I can't complain too much. After a year or so, the pan is sagging pretty badly and doesn't look great.

Soooo I picked up the Turner motorsports albumin belly pan. It took 2 months to get here, but Holy hell is it beefy. 1/8" thick aluminum with rivnuts for installation. Can't wait to get this thing on the car.

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

That is the same one as ECS Tuning sells. I've been waiting since October for mine. It's supposed to ship today. So it's pretty nice, huh? Can't wait.

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Dang it! That aluminum plate, didn't even know it was something I needed, but now I want it.

So I wonder how well coolant and oil clean off an aluminum sheet? Imagine it would sleet off easier though :P

[dcorn]

FINALLLY put on my Turner Motorsports belly pan. I see they are backordered again, so maybe I just bitched enough that they just built and sent me one. Again, this thing is so beefy. I thought it was just going to be some sheet metal aluminum, but instead the pan is seriously thick 1/8" plate. The pan probably weighs 15 lbs or so, but since I drive 15-20k miles a year on the DC beltway and other crappy roads, I love the protection it adds.

Install was fine. The rivnut install tool kinda sucked to use and I broke the bolt on the first rivnut because I torqued it too high apparently (didn't have my torque wrench). Thankfully they sent a shorter bolt that I used for the rest of them. It took some wrastling to get all the bolts lined up, but damn does it look strong now that it's all bolted up.

There were a couple rivnuts that didn't line up with anything on my car, and I thought they might hit my intercooler, so I ground them out.

Yeah, I have some oil leaks apparently... Hopefully the new valve cover gasket and properly seating an intercooler connector will get rid of a few leaks.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by dcorn

FINALLLY put on my Turner Motorsports belly pan. I see they are backordered again, so maybe I just bitched enough that they just built and sent me one. Again, this thing is so beefy. I thought it was just going to be some sheet metal aluminum, but instead the pan is seriously thick 1/8" plate. The pan probably weighs 15 lbs or so, but since I drive 15-20k miles a year on the DC beltway and other crappy roads, I love the protection it adds.

Install was fine. The rivnut install tool kinda sucked to use and I broke the bolt on the first rivnut because I torqued it too high apparently (didn't have my torque wrench). Thankfully they sent a shorter bolt that I used for the rest of them. It took some wrastling to get all the bolts lined up, but damn does it look strong now that it's all bolted up.

There were a couple rivnuts that didn't line up with anything on my car, and I thought they might hit my intercooler, so I ground them out.

Yeah, I have some oil leaks apparently... Hopefully the new valve cover gasket and properly seating an intercooler connector will get rid of a few leaks.

I just installed mine yesterday as well. The Rivnut tool needs just 11 pound-foot of torque to set the crimp. You can feel it crimp based on how the threading uptake of the bolt changes. I used a 3/8ths beam-style tq wrench.

I used oil on the tool bolt to prevent galling of threads. The 20MM short bolt is anodized black for some reason, I recut the threads on it to remove the coating.

I like the overall engineering of the skid plate because it ties into the V-brace and front crossmember on the underside of the front subframe. It's best to loosen the transmission belly pan to ease the alignment of the two rear mounting holes.

[dcorn]

Yeah, I dunno about that 11 ft-lb thing. I was putting quite a bit of force on the rivnut tool and the rivnuts would still spin. I basically tightened until the rivnut wouldn't spin anymore without me holding it with another wrench. Thankfully I didn't break the shorter black screw. I used grease on mine because I couldn't find anti-seize. I don't think it was anodize, just black oxide coated.

Yeah, definitely not going to worry about stuff hitting the belly pan any longer. I also threw some electrical tape on the edges of the oil change door to prevent any rattling.