[KC87ZB]

Think of the folks that don't prowl the forums and will find out the hard way.

In my mind there are two issues:
First, the open bumper is a design choice. BMW made that choice and then added a thin plastic "protector" in front of the radiator. That choice leads to some risk by the owner and you can choose to install protection or not.

Second, the horizontal oil cooler. While I completely understand the design choice of placing it where it is, that was a design choice and it should have been protected by a skid plate of some type. Design flaw in my mind.

Part of my thinking is the car can piss coolant should be noticeable. The car pisses oil and the engine siezes. Low coolant and low oil level alerts should be much sooner on these cars based on the design choices - there in my mind is the real flaw in BMW's decision tree. I'd much rather get an alert when just 1qt down than 1qt left.

I truly feel for the OP and anyone this has happened too. The upside of your pain is that we all get to see this and learn.

[DrewDDS]

I was taking off from a red light, maybe 100 ft away from it. I’m not sure how fast I was going, but it couldn’t have been more than 45mph. The truck in front of me switched lanes and I saw the rock fly up as the trucks tire crossed over a crevice between the two lanes. I thought the rock hit my a pillar or windshield. Oddly I stopped and got some washer fluid at an auto parts store, smelled coolant faintly and shrugged it off since my f80 had a faint coolant smell too. Didn’t connect the dots until later on when my a/c didn’t get cold.

Before buying the car I did look at the front end and think about things hitting the radiator, but I thought hey, BMW knows what they are doing. Wasn’t at all considering that they knew when they released the car that damage to the radiator would be the end users responsibility. Honestly have a million other things on my mind at the moment besides my car. I bought the m2 in October, moved houses in December then had a second child days after settling in that ended up as a week long stay at the NICU and terrified that she had some massive health problem, sleepless nights, employee issues at my dental practice jeopardizing my income, a lawsuit due to another house we attempted to purchase… it’s just been one thing after the next, and needless to say this car has been the last thing on my mind until this.

[clydefrog]

Originally Posted by DrewDDS

I was taking off from a red light, maybe 100 ft away from it. I’m not sure how fast I was going, but it couldn’t have been more than 45mph. The truck in front of me switched lanes and I saw the rock fly up as the trucks tire crossed over a crevice between the two lanes. I thought the rock hit my a pillar or windshield. Oddly I stopped and got some washer fluid at an auto parts store, smelled coolant faintly and shrugged it off since my f80 had a faint coolant smell too. Didn’t connect the dots until later on when my a/c didn’t get cold.

Before buying the car I did look at the front end and think about things hitting the radiator, but I thought hey, BMW knows what they are doing. Wasn’t at all considering that they knew when they released the car that damage to the radiator would be the end users responsibility. Honestly have a million other things on my mind at the moment besides my car. I bought the m2 in October, moved houses in December then had a second child days after settling in that ended up as a week long stay at the NICU and terrified that she had some massive health problem, sleepless nights, employee issues at my dental practice jeopardizing my income, a lawsuit due to another house we attempted to purchase… it’s just been one thing after the next, and needless to say this car has been the last thing on my mind until this.

Sounds just very unlucky man.. I sincerely hope things turn around for you and your family and you can relax a bit and enjoy this car or the next one without worries

[Tag]

From the past few posts is seems everyone acknowledges there's an issue with lack of protection. The disagreement is if it should have been better protected from factory or if the onus is on the owner to add that protection.

[DrewDDS]

Originally Posted by Tag

From the past few posts is seems everyone acknowledges there's an issue with lack of protection. The disagreement is if it should have been better protected from factory or if the onus is on the owner to add that protection.

Pretty much my thought process, and to me it seems like a $10 plastic mesh could have been included on a 70k car.

Maybe I felt a bit offended when someone asked if they should include nail proof tires and crack proof windshield and I’ll take responsibility for that.

I thought the mesh that was used before looked fine, I’m not a big fan of any of the kits available. Oem always looks better. I really don’t think this is a cooling performance issue, I think it’s an aesthetic choice which to me makes the statement that they only want to sell cars and don’t care about the end user

[MineralGreyMetallic]

My absolute wild speculation is that the screens that came with the F Generation M cars, which are quite similar to the aftermarket options people are putting on the G87, don't actually reduce the number of incidents. See https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1499750

The incident rate is already quite low. BMW probably saw in their testing and observations of reported incidents that those screens did not significantly reduce the number of incidents.

So while the Zunsport protectors and after market screens people are adding certainly make us feel more secure, I highly doubt they are materially reducing the occurrences of these incidents. And none of the companies selling these parts have any data as to whether they reduce incidents.

Not saying don't add the protection. I'm just trying to be rational about this.

Radiators need to be exposed to some degree to function properly. That means there will always be some risk.

I don't get behind the idea that BMW is trying to save pennies on production by not including those F Generation style grilles.

[DrewDDS]

Originally Posted by clydefrog

Sounds just very unlucky man.. I sincerely hope things turn around for you and your family and you can relax a bit and enjoy this car or the next one without worries

Originally Posted by M2siast

Also this. Not trying to reduce the sadness that ensues when our stuff gets damaged. Any incident/accident is a shame. Sorry it happened.

Much appreciated, also to your point m2siast maybe I was overdramatic. Like I said it’s been one thing after the next and I got a bit caught up in the madness.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by DrewDDS

Pretty much my thought process, and to me it seems like a $10 plastic mesh could have been included on a 70k car.

Maybe I felt a bit offended when someone asked if they should include nail proof tires and crack proof windshield and I’ll take responsibility for that.

I thought the mesh that was used before looked fine, I’m not a big fan of any of the kits available. Oem always looks better. I really don’t think this is a cooling performance issue, I think it’s an aesthetic choice which to me makes the statement that they only want to sell cars and don’t care about the end user

It's nothing more than BMW implementing cost cutting. I agree, the comparison of a headlight, windshield etc. are not apples-to-apples. This debate has been going on ever since the G87 debut and is split between two camps. One side thinks BMW can and should do better, that's where I fall into, while the other side thinks it's all overblown or should be decided by the owner. Doesn't matter how much everyone argues, minds are made up.

[DrewDDS]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

My absolute wild speculation is that the screens that came with the F Generation M cars, which are quite similar to the aftermarket options people are putting on the G87, don't actually reduce the number of incidents. See https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1499750

The incident rate is already quite low. BMW probably saw in their testing and observations of reported incidents that those screens did not significantly reduce the number of incidents.

So while the Zunsport protectors and after market screens people are adding certainly make us feel more secure, I highly doubt they are materially reducing the occurrences of these incidents. And none of the companies selling these parts have any data as to whether they reduce incidents.

Not saying don't add the protection. I'm just trying to be rational about this.

Radiators need to be exposed to some degree to function properly. That means there will always be some risk.

This is a great point, I’m in agreement that I was probably super unlucky. Although it seems crazy not to add some protection at this point, I’m still not sure what I’m going to do.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

So while the Zunsport protectors and after market screens people are adding certainly make us feel more secure, I highly doubt they are materially reducing the occurrences of these incidents.

The ZunSport screen & probably Stradale screen would've 100% prevented OP's issue.

[MineralGreyMetallic]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

The ZunSport screen & probably Stradale screen would've 100% prevented OP's issue.

Yes, perhaps in this rare incident.

But, do you think most of the rocks hitting that protected area are small enough to fit between the gaps?

[DSTR]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

The ZunSport screen & probably Stradale screen would've 100% prevented OP's issue.

Correct. To think otherwise is a bit daft.

As far as roads go -- somewhat cleaner here in Germany over all but my dealer has more than a few stories of damage and thought my addition of them was money smartly spent(Zunsport). They see this damage every year - more than a few cars as well. Engine replaced etc.

They see more radiator damage vs oil cooler. No matter the part damaged its preventable factory or aftermarket solutions.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

Yes, perhaps in this rare incident.

But, do you think most of the rocks hitting that protected area are small enough to fit between the gaps?

I have 9k miles on my M2, I drive between Austin & Dallas & back almost every weekend (240 mi one way). I35 is a literal mine field of garbage and road debris. Last year my 330e was hit 3 times by kicked up road debris, kicked up tire treads, etc. The first time cracked my front splitter. The second time shattered my headlight, lower grilles, new splitter, fog light housing and popped the kidney grilles out. Resulted in $4k in damage. The third time, cracked my new, new splitter.

Every time I drive that route I can hear the small pebbles skipping off my car, my windshield, heck even my $150 painted front emblem from IND is already chipped up. Thankfully, I have full front covered in Xpel Ultimate.

So to answer your question, I detail my car every week and I have yet to find any rocks behind the screens. Imo, it would take all 9 realms aligning and a rock the size of a baseball to bust through the screen and damage the radiators. But who knows, I could be wrong.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by DSTR

Correct. To think otherwise is a bit daft.

As far as roads go -- somewhat cleaner here in Germany over all but my dealer has more than a few stories of damage and thought my addition of them was money smartly spent(Zunsport). They see this damage every year - more than a few cars as well. Engine replaced etc.

They see more radiator damage vs oil cooler. No matter the part damaged its preventable factory or aftermarket solutions.

My SA also liked the screens & asked where I got them. Why I like the ZunSport screens better than the others is because they sit in front of the crossbar in the opening. So even if something does it them, its not getting through to the radiator.

[KC87ZB]

Originally Posted by Tag

It's nothing more than BMW implementing cost cutting. ...

I am going to have to disagree. The open front is all about the design aesthetics. They did put a shitty little plastic screen there so they did think about it but it is like 0.5mm off the condenser. No ability to absorb impact.

[LAGWAGN]

I think we can all agree on one thing - the real winner of this thread is ZunSport. It encouraged me to order the front set to go along with the, already installed, oil cooler guard.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by KC87ZB

I am going to have to disagree. The open front is all about the design aesthetics. They did put a shitty little plastic screen there so they did think about it but it is like 0.5mm off the condenser. No ability to absorb impact.

HEA cars all had the flimsy guards regardless of transmission, but it was a mixed bag with production cars. MT had the flimsy guards while the AT didn't, they are completely exposed. There are multiple threads on this.

[DrewDDS]

Originally Posted by Tag

HEA cars all had the flimsy guards regardless of transmission, but it was a mixed bag with production cars. MT had the flimsy guards while the AT didn't, they are completely exposed. There are multiple threads on this.

The auto cars just use the trans cooler to protect the heat exchanger

[KC87ZB]

Again, this is about design, regardless of MT or AT. BMW wanted the open bumper design so that’s what they went with. Now we get to live with it the way it is or insert additional protection.

[akumachu]

Originally Posted by MineralGreyMetallic

My absolute wild speculation is that the screens that came with the F Generation M cars, which are quite similar to the aftermarket options people are putting on the G87, don't actually reduce the number of incidents. See https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1499750

The incident rate is already quite low. BMW probably saw in their testing and observations of reported incidents that those screens did not significantly reduce the number of incidents.

So while the Zunsport protectors and after market screens people are adding certainly make us feel more secure, I highly doubt they are materially reducing the occurrences of these incidents. And none of the companies selling these parts have any data as to whether they reduce incidents.

Not saying don't add the protection. I'm just trying to be rational about this.

Radiators need to be exposed to some degree to function properly. That means there will always be some risk.

I don't get behind the idea that BMW is trying to save pennies on production by not including those F Generation style grilles.

It is exactly what I am trying to point out that adding the mesh may make you feel better but with small percentage of incident, it is even harder to decide whether protection actually helped or not, aka 10 cases out of 15000 car vs 0 cases out of 1000 car with the add on.

I actually got the Zunsport screen for the center grill not because I thought it would prevent this kind of things from happening, I did it because I got my car in October, prime New England foliage time.
I couldn't deal with having leaves kept accumulating in there so the mesh does the trick.

And I truly feel bad for OP with the string of unfortunately events. I have two young kids as well so totally understand the "not needing more problems" aspect.

[NewToM]

I have about 3K miles with my Zunsport screens and all still seem very well in place. While I would prefer to not to have to run them I have no complaints. Would love carbon inlets tbh.

[NewToM]

Originally Posted by akumachu

It is exactly what I am trying to point out that adding the mesh may make you feel better but with small percentage of incident, it is even harder to decide whether protection actually helped or not, aka 10 cases out of 15000 car vs 0 cases out of 1000 car with the add on.

I actually got the Zunsport screen for the center grill not because I thought it would prevent this kind of things from happening, I did it because I got my car in October, prime New England foliage time.
I couldn't deal with having leaves kept accumulating in there so the mesh does the trick.

And I truly feel bad for OP with the string of unfortunately events. I have two young kids as well so totally understand the "not needing more problems" aspect.

The leaves are brutal! My only complaint is I got the screens put on by PPF guys and they didn’t totally clear out the leaves. 😭