[Ridgeback_Pilot]

It seems like I'm constantly scraping the bottom of my front air dam on something! Either the road, when pulling out of a parking lot or driveway where there is a dip, or when parking the car up against a curb.

I try to be careful not to scrape the air dam, but it seems no matter what I do, the damned thing contacts the pavement or the curb occasionally. And the results aren't pretty; the paint suffers some minor damage every time it happens. And since my paint is Carbon Black and the underlying plastic of the air dam is white, the scrapes are pretty obvious.

My car has the Dinan Stage 2 suspension installed, so perhaps it sits lower than otherwise. But there must be some way of preventing damage to my front air dam! Anyone else have problems with this, and a potential solution (other than being super-careful)?

Thanks, Mike

 

[mottati]

it's just one of those things that happens Mike, me too. Interestingly, my on my silver car, the plastic seems to be black. So when I get a scrape, i see black plastic!

 

[bgregg]

It's a problem that you can't avoid entirely I guess. Here's mine...someday I'll repaint the whole air dam when it gets hideous. Unlike Mike O., my scrapes are white too. Sorry, no suggestion for a solution that doesn't cramp your ability to drive the car anywhere/anytime. Mine is my daily driver, so it takes the driveway and parking lot abuse too. I try not to park with tires up against concrete stops, but when I let other people drive the car (like my wife or best friends) stuff happens. But I have done it too (guilty).
http://www.m5board.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=4962

 

[Anzir]

I've had a clear bra on the front since a month after the car was delivered. It has saved the front air dam from tons of stuff, including a fridge (stupid roadside assistance didn't notice the car was in gear), but I don't get too much scraping of the front like others have noticed. The 3M film does need to be changed, now that it is 5 years old. I'll be posting pics up within two weeks to show the big difference after I get it replaced.

 

[a_ok2me]

I have ground effect on another car and is sits about 2-3" from the ground. You can't avoid scrapes going over some bumps or pulling in/out of some driveways. There is a trick that works most of the time. In regards to curbs, I've learned that you make sure not to park too close to the curb if it's a high curb. You get used to it after awhile. The M5 is much higher but the stupid black splash guard sits about 1" below the bumper. That piece broke on me.

 

[M5Kid]

There is nothing you can do about it, unless you wanted to respary the lower end, and then have Stoneguard but on, which may help. I've leared to live with a car that not only sits low, but has a very low front fascia. You learn to judge distances of curbs when parking, and go at an angle and very slow on driveways etc.

Travis

 

[Rayman]

I also have the Dinan Stage 2 suspension and have the same problem. Scraping the air dam was not that much of a problem before the suspension upgrade.


However, I'm so happy with my suspension upgrade I can handle a few scrapes on the air dam.

Rayman
2003 M5

 

[Anzir]

Here's a pic of the film coming off.. and the untouched paint underneath. You can see the abuse the film got in 5 years.

 

[deepwater]

Expensive if you have to replace. Ran over a badger last week, smashed the air dam, £1150 to have it replaced.:sad2: