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      11-05-2014, 08:07 PM   #1
paris1
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Question How do owners with M-sport package deal with low-clearance front end?

Had the car for a few days now and have encountered several situations where the M-sport front bumper valance, coupled with the adaptive suspension lowered ride height (I'm assuming it's always lower than the normal suspension and that this isn't just at speed) has made it difficult to avoid scraping the front end on driveways and other road irregularities. Other than traversing these on the diagonal very slowly, anyone have any suggestions for saving the bodywork?
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      11-05-2014, 08:38 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paris1
Had the car for a few days now and have encountered several situations where the M-sport front bumper valance, coupled with the adaptive suspension lowered ride height (I'm assuming it's always lower than the normal suspension and that this isn't just at speed) has made it difficult to avoid scraping the front end on driveways and other road irregularities. Other than traversing these on the diagonal very slowly, anyone have any suggestions for saving the bodywork?
You nailed it. I drag ass out of and into my driveway every day (and still hear the dreaded krrrrsch on occasion).
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      11-05-2014, 08:55 PM   #3
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just drag on. There's a price to pay to look pretty.
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      11-05-2014, 09:07 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nkc
just drag on. There's a price to pay to look pretty.
^ +1
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      11-05-2014, 11:02 PM   #5
paris1
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Just out of curiosity, how much better is the standard front end without the adaptive suspension in this regard?
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      11-05-2014, 11:50 PM   #6
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I have the base model bumper and adaptive dampers and it still scrapes all over the place if I don't go slowly and diagonal.

A lot of the times the noise is from the rubber in front of the front tires
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      11-06-2014, 03:14 AM   #7
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SE without adaptive is just 10mm higher so its not going to make a huge difference. SE with adaptive is the same as M Sport with or without adaptive i.e. 10mm lower.

Just go slowly where you might scrape it. There's also a 20mm rubber lip under the front end to let you know its scraping before you do any real damage.
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      11-06-2014, 07:20 AM   #8
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It's one thing to scrape the bottom, it's another to crack the lip. Be careful about how close you park to things. Learning the proximity of the nose of the car to objects takes time if you don't have parking sensors.
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      11-06-2014, 07:22 AM   #9
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Biggest adjustment I had with this car was the low and long front end. Quite a few encounters with parking barriers the first month. Then with the 19" wheels have to be careful cornering as well. I went from a 335i -> X3 ->Z4 so big difference between the X3 and Z4
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      11-06-2014, 08:52 AM   #10
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This car is a dream compared to my previous C6 Vette. It still requires some caution, which I guess come with the territory. I pretty much drive all cars like they have a long and low nose at this point just out of habit.
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      11-06-2014, 09:34 AM   #11
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Thanks for the comments. I kind of thought it wasn't actually the front valance that was scraping (at least not all of the time) because there's little or no scarring on it after nearly 20k miles of service. Just have to learn some new habits I guess.
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      11-06-2014, 10:59 AM   #12
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Recently had a new front bumper put on ( to no more dealer-installed license plate holes!) and a week later, scraped it trying to enter a parking garage in the city. I was super cautious, went slow, and sideways. It wasn't even that high but absolutely did not clear it like planned.

You live and you learn. Most importantly, you just accept it. After you've done it half a dozen time, you just go "ah, shit" and move on. The first cut is the deepest, ya know.
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      11-06-2014, 08:21 PM   #13
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10 years of owning a beater Z3 was great "low clearance training." Had to replace that Z3 bumper once after nose-diving the car into a dip at the far side of an intersection.

Go diagonally and go slowly. I've been honked at a couple of times for crawling across some super questionable pavements but oh well, my Z4 bumper had 0 scratches or curb rash after 2 years of ownership.

The same applies when parking nose-in diagonally against a curb: No shame in getting out for a second to see how much farther you can pull in before parking.
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      11-09-2014, 11:26 AM   #14
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I have the parking sensors, but you got to turn it on when you just go forward in a parking spot. Only comes on automatically when your in reverse. Scraped it twice on a parking curb and once on a speed bump. They are underneath the lip so you can't see them. The underpart of that lip is a rock magnet anyway!!
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      11-09-2014, 09:20 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nicknaz View Post
I have the base model bumper and adaptive dampers and it still scrapes all over the place if I don't go slowly and diagonal.

A lot of the times the noise is from the rubber in front of the front tires
i agree with nick, i also have with the m package and most of the time its just the rubber. Plus on top of that i have a front carbon fiber lip (which made it more difficult to get up on a bump), but its a price i gotta pay. Other then that, theres isn't much to worry about.
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      11-11-2014, 11:29 AM   #16
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That's why you get a 1er! Lol all kidding aside, just go through driveways in and out in an arcing motion. NEVER go in/out in a straight line! Going in forward is easy but getting out is hard especially if you live on a busy street like me. Otherwise, just get used to scraping or buy a cheap lip and let that absorb all the damage. My brother just gave up trying to get out in an arc and just test his luck pulling out in a semi-straight line.
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