[bludblu]

[ATTACH][ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]Hi
If you are curious, enjoy this for your understanding of the mechanism of the active grille shutter.
If you are looking on a possible way to remove it, here is an option.

Another great option is to remove the front bumper, but I wanted to avoid that, so find here how I did it.

I removed my active grille shutter w/o disconnecting any wires to ensure no check engine light or fault downloaded in the OBD memory etc, in case it would have, I don't know so I did not take any chances.

First step, just press down the tabs holding each exterior grille. Tabs are visible when you open the hood, just press down with a flat screwdriver and pull grille straight out.

Second step, use a drimmel rotary tool to cut the plastic flaps and the motor arms. Find attached some pictures.

You will notice on pictures, that a little hole is barely visible in corners, from the first little flap that been removed.

Now, happy my radiator is visible (like when a normal engine radiator needs air to cool) so breathing full time..Like normal on how it is and how it should have been in my mind, and like it always been on old cars, that's my 2 cents, so simple, like an M5 by the way, always air-cooled, and no worries.

P.S.:
I bought a used Active Grille on Ebay (75$) to ensure everything would be ok prior I modify my car. That is where some attached pictures were taken from.

In the same time, I painted my plastic covering the camera same color of my car, it is easy to remove as well in order to paint it. Press down the tabs and you will find the proper angle to pull it out. Once painted, just re-snap it in place.

[JxhnWickg30i]

OMG THANK YOU. I've been trying to find out if this is possible for so long. The post is kind of messed up is it possible to message me the steps????? Will try this weekend thank you

[Marior20]

Nice job!

[bludblu]

Thanks.
Again, no electric disconnect from the motor. No need to remove the motor.
For information on how it is made, refer to attached pictures of the motor from the used active grille I had to better understand the mechanism.

Cut each flap one by one with the drimmel rotary tool, carefully cut it either from the base or right true its mid size.

Then just rotate a little bit the cut portion and it will get out easily.

Cut the closest you can the connecting arms at the motor joints to ensure the motor can rotate easily without any obstruction of movement of the free moving part that stay in place and to ensure no rattles as well when the motor is activated.
Everything will rotate free with transparency.

[mittu]

You mate, are a CHAMP! I completely agree that it doesn't look right with closed shutters.

Why wait for the engine (and other components) to become hot before allowing it to cool? I don't get BMW's thinking behind this. They say it helps with aerodynamic efficiency, lol but by how much really. Also it looks like there's a reliability issue with the motor.

Seems more like a marketing gimmick... Besides my real reason to remove them, is so I can wrap the crash bar blue

[choppedliver]

In cold weather with it open it will take longer to get up to operational temperature. Closing the flap helps with this. On my old 135i in winter in Australia (not cold) the car drops below what I would consider a safe operational temperature on the highway. And active grill would fix this.

[MauiSteve]

You really painted that center plastic piece perfectly. Was that from a rattle can? Where did you get the paint? Can you elaborate on your paint process and anything special you did to get the paint to adhere well.

[Sophisto540]

So after much thought and planning, I finally removed these active grills too. I even bought a dremmel tool.

At the end of the day, the dremmel was too slow and hedge trimmers work much better. See photo below.

The dremmel was useful to cut the arm from the motor but that was it.

Hope this picture helps others get the project started on the cheap.

[704g30]

Originally Posted by Sophisto540

So after much thought and planning, I finally removed these active grills too. I even bought a dremmel tool.

At the end of the day, the dremmel was too slow and hedge trimmers work much better. See photo below.

The dremmel was useful to cut the arm from the motor but that was it.

Hope this picture helps others get the project started on the cheap.

So you just cut off the grill slats and removed them with the linkage and that was it? This looks like the quick way to make this happen. I have a PVC cutter that should cut that plastic just the same as that hedge trimmer haha.

[Sophisto540]

Originally Posted by motec_dave

So you just cut off the grill slats and removed them with the linkage and that was it? This looks like the quick way to make this happen. I have a PVC cutter that should cut that plastic just the same as that hedge trimmer haha.

Pretty much. I slowly cut the first one, closest to the camera in the center, on the passenger side grill. Realized that the slats literally dangle and fall out of their holes once there is no tension keeping them in place. The ones closest to the center do have a separate clunky bit behind them that the motor attaches to but if you are removing the slats that is coming out too so no real need to be careful other than not scratching your car.

Best advice I can give for when the slats are all out and you are just dealing with the motor arms is to cut the light gray arm as close to the motor as possible so they don't get stuck during operation.

[704g30]

Originally Posted by Sophisto540

Pretty much. I slowly cut the first one, closest to the camera in the center, on the passenger side grill. Realized that the slats literally dangle and fall out of their holes once there is no tension keeping them in place. The ones closest to the center do have a separate clunky bit behind them that the motor attaches to but if you are removing the slats that is coming out too so no real need to be careful other than not scratching your car.

Best advice I can give for when the slats are all out and you are just dealing with the motor arms is to cut the light gray arm as close to the motor as possible so they don't get stuck during operation.

Awesome! Looks like I have my next project. Thanks for the tips!

[BCB182]

Originally Posted by Sophisto540

Pretty much. I slowly cut the first one, closest to the camera in the center, on the passenger side grill. Realized that the slats literally dangle and fall out of their holes once there is no tension keeping them in place. The ones closest to the center do have a separate clunky bit behind them that the motor attaches to but if you are removing the slats that is coming out too so no real need to be careful other than not scratching your car.

Best advice I can give for when the slats are all out and you are just dealing with the motor arms is to cut the light gray arm as close to the motor as possible so they don't get stuck during operation.

This is awesome, thanks for posting!!

[704g30]

Originally Posted by Sophisto540

Pretty much. I slowly cut the first one, closest to the camera in the center, on the passenger side grill. Realized that the slats literally dangle and fall out of their holes once there is no tension keeping them in place. The ones closest to the center do have a separate clunky bit behind them that the motor attaches to but if you are removing the slats that is coming out too so no real need to be careful other than not scratching your car.

Best advice I can give for when the slats are all out and you are just dealing with the motor arms is to cut the light gray arm as close to the motor as possible so they don't get stuck during operation.

So I got my car back from the dealer today and first thing I did was use my tree pruners haha. Worked great!

[Sophisto540]

Originally Posted by motec_dave

So I got my car back from the dealer today and first thing I did was use my tree pruners haha. Worked great!

The red wrap looks good on that white!
How hard was it to wrap that?

I also noticed when I did it and in your pictures that our M style grills cover up the "holes" that the OP mentioned on the far edges of the grill.

[704g30]

Originally Posted by Sophisto540

The red wrap looks good on that white!
How hard was it to wrap that?

I also noticed when I did it and in your pictures that our M style grills cover up the "holes" that the OP mentioned on the far edges of the grill.

I got them from Amazon. They are basically red pvc that is oversized to slip over the braces. They fit nice and tight. Supper easy to put on. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And yeah, you are right. The grills do cover up the corner holes that are left. I love it, thanks again I would have never thought it was that easy!

Tomorrow I get my muffler delete done at my buddies shop.

[704g30]

I thought I would add another bonus feature to doing this. The A/C in the car now works better than anything I could have ever wished for. No longer required to be in MAX A/C for it to feel even "reasonable" in the heat and humidity. It is set to 68 and auto and it's cold just about instantly now. No other changes so it must be the added access to fresh air from them being open all the time.

[Dasky_spas]

Originally Posted by bludblu

[ATTACH][ATTACH]Attachment 2334722[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]Hi
If you are curious, enjoy this for your understanding of the mechanism of the active grille shutter.
If you are looking on a possible way to remove it, here is an option.

Another great option is to remove the front bumper, but I wanted to avoid that, so find here how I did it.

I removed my active grille shutter w/o disconnecting any wires to ensure no check engine light or fault downloaded in the OBD memory etc, in case it would have, I don't know so I did not take any chances.

First step, just press down the tabs holding each exterior grille. Tabs are visible when you open the hood, just press down with a flat screwdriver and pull grille straight out.

Second step, use a drimmel rotary tool to cut the plastic flaps and the motor arms. Find attached some pictures.

You will notice on pictures, that a little hole is barely visible in corners, from the first little flap that been removed.

Now, happy my radiator is visible (like when a normal engine radiator needs air to cool) so breathing full time..Like normal on how it is and how it should have been in my mind, and like it always been on old cars, that's my 2 cents, so simple, like an M5 by the way, always air-cooled, and no worries.

P.S.:
I bought a used Active Grille on Ebay (75$) to ensure everything would be ok prior I modify my car. That is where some attached pictures were taken from.

In the same time, I painted my plastic covering the camera same color of my car, it is easy to remove as well in order to paint it. Press down the tabs and you will find the proper angle to pull it out. Once painted, just re-snap it in place.

Attachment 2334653

Attachment 2334654

Attachment 2334656

Attachment 2334657

Attachment 2334658

Attachment 2334659

Attachment 2334660

Attachment 2334670

Attachment 2334673

Attachment 2334674

Attachment 2334675

Attachment 2334676

Which parts did you leave in the motor so no cel was thrown? Are you able to provide more pics on how the motor looked when finished? Thanks!!

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Dasky_spas

Which parts did you leave in the motor so no cel was thrown? Are you able to provide more pics on how the motor looked when finished? Thanks!!

There are arms that come out of the motor. Those need to stay intact so they can still move as if they were open and closing. That's how you stop getting the check engine light.

Me personally, I just removed the motor and had the check engine light coded out.

[Dasky_spas]

Originally Posted by M550bernina

There are arms that come out of the motor. Those need to stay intact so they can still move as if they were open and closing. That's how you stop getting the check engine light.

Me personally, I just removed the motor and had the check engine light coded out.

Who did you use to remove the cel?

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Dasky_spas

Who did you use to remove the cel?

There's a guy by me that does BMW coding. Basically is a laptop with the ISTA software. My vehicle is tuned, so I won't allow for automatic or dealer updates. So any thing that has been done to my car, I have to have coded with ISTA software.

[Dasky_spas]

Originally Posted by M550bernina

There's a guy by me that does BMW coding. Basically is a laptop with the ISTA software. My vehicle is tuned, so I won't allow for automatic or dealer updates. So any thing that has been done to my car, I have to have coded with ISTA software.

Ya I have the motor in with the arms but still getting a check engine light. If I can just code out the motor related alerts ( 4 of them) that would be ideal since I put on the entire m8 body panel setup.

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Dasky_spas

Ya I have the motor in with the arms but still getting a check engine light. If I can just code out the motor related alerts ( 4 of them) that would be ideal since I put on the entire m8 body panel setup.

Google "BMW coding near me". For something as simple as a check engine light, someone will probably charge like 40 to 50 bucks to make it go away with ISTA software.