Front air ducts unlatched?

[Alby_416]

Hi guys, Alby here

been reading this forum for quite some time but never posted, although today I wanted to share with you something interesting that I found out on my 1M:














As you can see from the pictures, the front air ducts which bring air to the additional coolers had the top half (or bottom half) unlatched!

I noticed this by pure chance while washing the car few weeks ago as I was trying to clean some dirt inside the ducts when I felt the plastic moving with very little force.


Today I jacked up the car and removed the front wheels. Fixed the air ducts by simply removing the front fender liners and snapping the 2 pieces of the duct together. I tried to snap them from outside but the plastic clips require quite some force so I had to access them from inside the wheel well.







*tip*
Removing the wheels and having the car jacked up makes the job much easier.
Also removing the two screws supporting the radiator makes it easier to latch the inner clips as you have a bit of movement to stick your hand inside.




Don't know for how long these things have been unlatched... As I said it was only by chance that I realized they were like that, by simply looking inside them you don't notice unless you knee and look up...

I suspect (but not 100% sure) this got unlatched when the dealer replaced the front fender liners as I had rubbing with the standard tyres otherwise I don't see how they could unlatch by themselves

I had some plastic "clunk" noise while driving especially on speed bumps and latching the ducts back together fixed this. Not major issue but more annoying than other..

Has this happened to any of you? Any ideas about the cause?

[GimmeanM]

I'm getting the revised liners put in tomorrow so I'll make sure to keep an eye out for this. Thanks!!

[Alby_416]

No problem let me know how it goes!!

[Goombeh]

I did precisely what you did.

Was washing the car and noticed a step when wiping inside the ducts. My left side was also unclipped and sitting oddly.

I was however able to clip it back securely without removing anything by adding pressure in the right places.

I'm certain is was not clipped in as it's a solid latch and I can't imagine it working itself free again.

Funny how happy such a simple find and fix can make you feel......

[SpencerMH]

I had the same issue, nice you put together a diy

[Alby_416]

thanks guys for the feedback, curious this happened to you as well!

I wasn't as lucky as you and wasn't able to clip them from outside, and I tried hard

Those latches as pretty solid as you said Goombeh so maybe you're right, they weren't clipped in in the first place.

[LeifW]

I just took a look at mine and I can see that they're both unlatched as well. When you say you removed the "front fenders", I assume you mean the front fender "liners", correct?

Leif W.

[Alby_416]

Yes correct, the fender liners I'll edit the fist post

[LeifW]

Hi all,

I just wanted to get some opinions. What do you think the downside is to not having this fixed? I always get concerned that when parts have to be removed, in order to fix something, that more issues may be introduced.

Thanks,
Leif

[Alby_416]

I had just some "clunk" noise coming from this plastics especially when passing over speed bumps... Fixing this fixed also this noise.

I guess also the air coming in is not gonna be redirected to the radiators in the optimum way if you leave them unlatched and free to move but that's just my guessing.


PS: in some cases you can fix them from outside, it was me that I couldn't so I removed the fender liners which is just another piece of plastic. It's very unlikely that you can introduce more issues by removing those as is really really easy to take them down and they're hold in place by a bunch of standard 8mm bolts and a couple of 10mm bolts.

[LeifW]

Thanks Alby_416. I have an appointment Thursday to get this fixed. I appreciate the feedback.

Leif W