[sfdentalnerd]

There's a TL;DR at the bottom.

I bought a cheap, 3-piece, no-name, gloss black front lip from eBay for my pre-LCI M340i knowing that it would get scratched up (and possibly cracked) from daily driving. I installed it with the self-tapping screws it came with and the install ended up looking not-too-shabby! Because that went so well, I figured, hey, why not buy cheap side skirts and a rear diffuser too!

I bought side skirts and rear diffuser from akamotorsports.

I installed the side skirts first, and it didn't go great. The side skirts came with double sided tape pre-installed and 5 self-tapping screws for each side skirt. The plastic seemed "warped" from the very beginning and the holes for the screws weren't clearly defined. The side skirts didn't seat fully and never seemed to fit. I had to bend them to get them to adapt to the car, which put a lot of tension on the double sided tape. Because of that, they didn't go on evenly, ended up with gaps, and I ended up ripping them off a week later.

I decided to try again, this time, I bought ikon motorsports side skirts. I had to supply my own double sided tape (it didn't come with any), but each side skirt came with 14 self-tapping screws and very well-defined holes. The difference in quality between ikon and the aka side skirts was night and day. I bought some 3M tape from eBay and installed the ikon side skirts with ease. It was very clear how they aligned to the car and there was no bending/forcing the plastic into place.

The akamotorsports side skirts were a dud, but what about the rear diffuser? I already paid for it and returning it was going to be a pain, so I figured why not try it out.

As I was installing the akamotorsports diffuser, I could tell right away that fitment was going to be an issue.

• there is no lower tow hook cover on this diffuser (it's just one piece straight across)
• the middle part of the diffuser was warped (I had to bend the plastic upwards to get it to go on)
• the diffuser is technically in place, but there's a lot of tension in the warped areas
• the sides won't snap in place fully
• there are gaps between the center diffuser and the side extensions
• the side extenstions don't extend to the end of the body work
• my quad tips (Infinite Autowerks 3.7" clamp on) BARELY fit through the exhaust holes

So now, I'm going to rip this diffuser off and order something else. Considering how the side skirts fit, I want to buy a rear diffuser from ikon motorsports, but I want the style that wraps around towards the rear wheel and they don't have one like that.

I really like the quality of my quad-tips from Infinite Autowerks, so I ordered their 3-piece rear diffuser. I'll let you know how it goes.

TL;DR
I have a 2020 pre-LCI M340i

• I bought, and rebought, cheap exterior trim (front lip, side skirts, rear diffuser) and found varying levels of quality and fitment.
• Yes, I probably should have just bought OEM or ADRO exterior trim, but I didn't want to pay a lot for plastic parts that I think will get pretty beat up from daily driving.
• akamotorsports side skirts: warped, poor quality, and did not fit well for me
• ikonmotorsports side skirts: better quality, easy install, and fit well for me
• akamotorsports 3-piece rear diffuser: warped, poor quality, did not come close to fitting well
• Infinite Autowerks 3-piece rear diffuser: TBD

[mikeyb74]

I originally installed Ikonmotorsports M Performance rep aero which didn't fit that well and didn't stand up to everyday use in New Hampshire. So I ended up replacing it all with the genuine M Performance parts over the last 4 years.