Carbon Fiber Grilles!!!!

[NSM]

Those suck though cuz they are soo small. if they were like the bigger kidney's they'd be awesome.

[95325is]

well these are for the 92-95 e36 and just found these and tried to help this member out they look alright imo the 96 in up have the wider grills

[Silverstreak328]

I have a 96 328is that came with OBD1 grill stock .

[E36Bmer]

Originally Posted by NsMthree

Nope nothing big... Just swapping the kidney's in and out!

you may be able to just swap the '97-up grills onto a <'96 by just swaping the grills, however it doesn't fit perfectly. I had a '96 328i that comes with the obdI type grill and I bought the grills for a '97 and just stuck them in and there was a little space on the inside bottom and nearly 1/2" on the bottom outside of the grill and it bothered the heck out of me. Yet, it is not really that noticable esp. if you car is black. This was space that the grill i added wasn't as large as the previous one b/c it was a different shape.

[NSM]

OK again the space that the grilles sit in is the same for all of the e36's. Its the shape of the grille that differs. The E36's got a slight face lift in 97 which is when the wider kidney grilles came into place. Also the space for the e46 non M grilles are the same as the e36. Which is why the ones in the ebay add will work on an e36.

[E36Bmer]

Originally Posted by NsMthree

OK again the space that the grilles sit in is the same for all of the e36's. Its the shape of the grille that differs. The E36's got a slight face lift in 97 which is when the wider kidney grilles came into place. Also the space for the e46 non M grilles are the same as the e36. Which is why the ones in the ebay add will work on an e36.

The space that the grills sit in are similar. Try this, go get some '92-'96 grills and try to put them on the front of you '99, it won't fit. The earlier grills were more square. The later ones angle inward towards the bottom so they actually take up less space, that's why you can fit the later grill in the earlier model but not the earlier grill in the later model. The difference in size is large enough for there to be a small area that is not covered by the grills when the later grill is put on a newer grill panel. Also, if they are exactly the same then why is there a different part number on the <96 and 97&up. I don't know anything about the E46 grill. But I had a '99 and '96 e36 at the same time and I can guaranty that the grills are not the exact same size, as I actually tried to swap the two and the '99 grill fit on my '96 but left a little space, but the '96 grill did not fit on the '99