[Northeastern101]

Seen a few posts about this on various forums. But want to put dark/smoky PPF on the grill of my iX.

Keen to see any pictures of anybody who has done this and also hear if it interfered with any of the sensors?

Fron what I have found it looks ok to do this. But not seen any posts of this recently so wanted to check.

Thank you!

[VirtualGuitars]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

Seen a few posts about this on various forums. But want to put dark/smoky PPF on the grill of my iX.

Keen to see any pictures of anybody who has done this and also hear if it interfered with any of the sensors?

Fron what I have found it looks ok to do this. But not seen any posts of this recently so wanted to check.

Thank you!

There are already plenty of posts on this forum alone on this topic. I suggest you read those before posting new questions on topics that have already been covered. I think you’ll find the forum users are split up the middle.

[Yorick123]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

Seen a few posts about this on various forums. But want to put dark/smoky PPF on the grill of my iX.

Keen to see any pictures of anybody who has done this and also hear if it interfered with any of the sensors?

Fron what I have found it looks ok to do this. But not seen any posts of this recently so wanted to check.

Thank you!

Hi.
I have my car fully wrapped including front grill.
No problems so far. Feel free to do it.

[Northeastern101]

Originally Posted by Yorick123

Hi.
I have my car fully wrapped including front grill.
No problems so far. Feel free to do it.

Thanks that's what I was looking for!

[VirtualGuitars]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

Thanks that's what I was looking for!

Don’t forget how many sensors are behind that grill. Despite what others may say on here, you’re adding another layer that may impact your safety systems. How do these other people know if it affects anything or not? Just because you don’t receive an error, doesn’t mean you’re not impacting its ability to function at full range. It’s just physics.

Personally, I wouldnt eff with anything involving safety systems.

[Northeastern101]

Originally Posted by VirtualGuitars

Don’t forget how many sensors are behind that grill. Despite what others may say on here, you’re adding another layer that may impact your safety systems. How do these other people know if it affects anything or not? Just because you don’t receive an error, doesn’t mean you’re not impacting its ability to function at full range. It’s just physics.

Personally, I wouldnt eff with anything involving safety systems.

That's why I posted this. Seen a few people had done this in the past so wanted to hear from them on what they experienced in real world

[VirtualGuitars]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

That's why I posted this. Seen a few people had done this in the past so wanted to hear from them on what they experienced in real world

On the surface, I don’t think you will have any issues from what I’ve read; however, you can’t get around physics. Although you may not notice, it may impact the range of your sensor’s reachability. I’m not trying to discourage you from doing it, I’m just suggesting to exercise caution.

[Paladin1]

The front grille is a polycarbonate shell covered with a thick layer of polyurethane (the standard PPF material). I haven't seen any technical information on how thick, but certainly much thicker than commercial PPF (which is generally 8-12 mils: 1 mil = .001"). So adding a dozen-ish mils to the original polyurethane likely won't affect the function of the radar behind it - which as far as I know is the only type of sensor behind the grille. Polyurethane is used in aircraft radomes because it's transparent to radar. Others have reported no issues covering the grille with PPF. That said, the sonic sensors are sensitive to even dust or insects covering them sometimes, and I have no idea what else - if anything - BMW stashes behind the beaver teeth. BMW thought they were important enough to add a heating element to melt snow and ice (which said element may ultimately affect the adhesion of the PPF - unknown). PPF is easily removable, so if you get continual error messages you can just strip it off, realizing that you have altered the original engineering design, which most of us have already done to our cars in one way or another, probably more significantly than adding PPF to the grille.

[Yorick123]

Originally Posted by VirtualGuitars

Don’t forget how many sensors are behind that grill. Despite what others may say on here, you’re adding another layer that may impact your safety systems. How do these other people know if it affects anything or not? Just because you don’t receive an error, doesn’t mean you’re not impacting its ability to function at full range. It’s just physics.

Personally, I wouldnt eff with anything involving safety systems.

I do believe that most systems are located here.
More than 40.000 km no problems. Had some situations and everything work just fine.

[baf3472]

I have it covered with smoke headlight tint. About 4000 miles so far and not a single issue. Safety and driving assistant systems all work exactly like before.

[VirtualGuitars]

Originally Posted by baf3472

I have it covered with smoke headlight tint. About 4000 miles so far and not a singke issue. Safety and driving assistant systems all work exactly like before.

Not trying to beat a dead horse, just because you haven’t seen an error in iDrive or loss of functionality doesn’t necessarily mean that the range or reach hasn’t been impacted. I’m assuming no one has done any “scientific” testing before and after.

[Northeastern101]

Originally Posted by baf3472

I have it covered with smoke headlight tint. About 4000 miles so far and not a singke issue. Safety and driving assistant systems all work exactly like before.

Looks great. Thanks for sharing this is what I was looking for.

[Northeastern101]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Can I ask what you used on the grill? Was it ppf?

[baf3472]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

Thanks for sharing your experience. Can I ask what you used on the grill? Was it ppf?

I used vivid smoke headlight tint. I originally got the dark smoke one but with no light behind it, it looked like straight black, no transparency.

[Louis_BE]

My Thread here,
Zero issues with sensors:
https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/s...php?p=29966612

[Northeastern101]

Originally Posted by Louis_BE

My Thread here,
Zero issues with sensors:
https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/s...php?p=29966612

This is great. Thanks for the update that you still have no issues.

[Northeastern101]

Sharing how it now looks with the ppf and ceramic...

[Fast400]

Beautiful! The ppf let's the shine right thru

[GHN1013]

Originally Posted by Northeastern101

Seen a few posts about this on various forums. But want to put dark/smoky PPF on the grill of my iX.

Keen to see any pictures of anybody who has done this and also hear if it interfered with any of the sensors?

Fron what I have found it looks ok to do this. But not seen any posts of this recently so wanted to check.

Thank you!

Does anyone know if they can do PPF on the front grill of an i5? I’m doing a PPF full front wrap but they indicated they don’t have any precuts for the grill. Will have to manually cut them, if even possible for each slit.

[darylp310]

There's been a couple threads here on the iX forum about tinting the grille. So far it seems to not cause any problems. I imagine it would be identical on an i5:

https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/s...ght=tint+grill

[Paladin1]

The iX grille is a very thick layer of polyurethane (which is transparent to radar) over a polycarbonate frame - an extra few mils of polyurethane PPF will make no difference whatsoever.

[Adrew777]

I have done both of mine and never had an issue with either for two years on one and one on the other.