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MINI Aero Grille DIY

Aero Grille Completed

I always thought the stock grille on the Cooper S was a bit of a contradiction. It wasn’t all chrome and it wasn’t all painted. It just looked incomplete. I like the look of the grille included with the Aero Kit, but didn’t want to go through the expense of replacing both bumper covers and side skirts just to get a new grille. Fortunately, you can just buy the grille and make the modification yourself, but it isn’t for the feint of heart as you’ll see in the photos below. You can still order the stock aero grille from your dealer (parts number 51110140255 and 51130140259) and the instructions can be found here. Expect to spend about $120 for both parts. The top half bolts on in about 15 minutes and is a direct replacement, but plan on a good 4-6 hours to complete the bottom half, depending on how efficient you are with a dremel tool. The lower half is made for the Aero Bumper which is slightly different from the regular R53 stock bumper. Here’s a brief overview of what it takes to make it fit.

jack stands

First, get your care safely up on jack stands. You don’t have to remove the wheels, but it makes getting to the bolts in the wheel wells easier.

Bumper Cover Off

It looks like you’ve dissected your car, but getting the bumper cover isn’t all that hard. Start by removing the three 10mm bolts under the bumper in front of the air dam. Remove two screws to drop the skid-plate. Remove the 5 plastic rivets holding the lower bumper to the air dam. Remove the plastic rivets at the end of the bumper where it meets the end of the air dam. There are two on each side, you only need to remove the one toward the rear of the car. Reach up into the wheel well and remove the two 8mm positioning bolts. The only thing holding the bumper on now is the two Torx-30 bolts in the front. Position something under the bumper to support its weight and remove those two bolts. Pull the bumper up and off the locating pins in the front. You’ll need to disconnect the temperature sensor and the wiring harness to the turn signals. Remove the lights from the parking lights and side markers. It’s also a good opportunity to replace all of those bulbs if you car is a couple of years old like mine.

Cover removed

You can remove the chrome piece by pushing it through from the back. The single slat is glued on. Prise it up a bit with a screw-driver and just pull it off. If you think you want to go back to stock later, be careful, otherwise, give it a good yank and don’t worry about bending it. But save the pieces regardless, you’ll need them as a template in the next step. You do have a decision to make, however. If you want the option to go back to stock, then once everything is off, you will likely want to paint the parts that will behind the new grille flat black. If you’re trying to improve air flow, like me, you’ll just want to cut it all out as I’ve marked in the photo.

new opening

As you fire up the dremel tool, try not to think about how much a new bumper cover is if you slip. Here you see the bumper cover upside-down. You can see the size of the new opening. I chose to leave the piece in the middle to add some stability to the bumper cover. I painted it black. You’ll also notice I replaced the bottom grille as well. This looks like one of those expensive ones I’ve seen for $150 advertised at a number of sites, but it cost me $.80. It’s made out of gutter-guard from Home Depot.

how much to cut

How much to cut? That’s the question. Use the chrome piece as a template and you’ll see the tabs are in the wrong place, and the new grille is about twice as thick as the stock one. You can either make a gaping hole in the bumper cover and figure out how to attach the grille later, or modify the grille to fit more or less in the available opening. The lines show how much I cut. This took a couple of hours and about a dozen cutting bits, but that’s just me. In the end, it fit snugly and I added some glue just to be safe.

everything together

Here’s the finished product all glued in and the lower grille painted black. It really fits well in the opening and you can’t tell what a hatchet job went on to get it in place. Before putting everything back together, I wanted to try one more thing.

new thing

This is another item from the HD Racing Supply (Home Depot.) The MINI radiator is twice as thick below the bumper as above it where the condenser sits in front of the radiator. Air feeds in from the lower grille as well as through the bumper, but it tends to wash up. By adding a blocker as indicated by the arrows, the air is forced through the radiator. At least that’s the plan, anyway. Rather than spending $150 for the part, I thought I could make my own. So here’s the GeorgeCo Air Diverter. $2.