[Bozman52]

Long-time lurker, not very frequent poster here. However, I've done some mods to my 2010 530d (EU spec) and have been meaning to share with the community, as this forum was very helpful in me getting all this sorted out. My car came from the factory as an SE model (built for the UK market), but I've converted it cosmetically to an M-sport package. In hindsight, I should have just got the M-sport out of the gate, but c'est la vie.

Before I did the bodywork conversion, I swapped out the 351 M-sport wheels (which I got the same day I bought the car- these were not stock on this car) for some black 343 M5 wheels. I have 255/35R20 on the front and 285/30R20 on the rear. There are no spacers; these bolted right on and I think the fit/look is perfect. I've never had any rubbing issues either. The tires are Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, which are insanely sticky and way overkill for this car.

Now back to the body work . . . I was "fortunate" enough to have two different people back into my front and rear bumpers, so I was able to roll the labor and painting costs into an insurance claim. Basically, the insurer paid for SE replacement parts, but I bought the M-sport plastics on my own and had the body shop install them instead. I ended up having to cut a check to the body shop in the end, on top of insurance, as the insurance didn't cover everything, but it was far more cost effective than me just doing this entirely out of pocket. However, it's hard for me to say what this would cost entirely out of pocket without spending a significant amount of time looking back at old receipts and insurance claims.

I did save some cash by buying some non-BMW parts: the side skirts and the rear bumper came from a German company on ebay called DM Autoteile (https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/dm-autote...72.m2749.l2754). My body shop guy is absolutely anal about only using OEM parts, so I had to convince him to give this a shot. He was pretty impressed with the quality of parts from this supplier and said they were no different from OEM, which he rarely sees with aftermarket providers . . . which is why he doesn't allow most customers to use them.

So here's what I've done:

- M-sport front bumper (with all the different internal bits/ducts) with fog light delete and M550d lower grilles.
- Aftermarket dual slat, black kidney grilles (not OEM BMW parts)
- M-sport side skirts (from DM Autoteile)
- M-sport rear bumper (again with the different internal parts) and diffuser that was painted gloss black, instead of standard graphite color. (from DM Autoteile)
- Painted chrome window trim black (absolute pain in the a$$, but looks much better than vinyl wrapping, which I tried first).

I've also added an aftermarket rear spoiler that's ever so slightly more aggressive than the standard BMW one. It came from ebay and I had it painted by the body shop.

Here are the parts lists of what you'll need to do this. I've left out the side skirts, as I can't be asked to pull up the part number right now. However, you don't need anything else for the skirts, as they clip right on with no additional pieces behind the scenes. Note that there are other people who have listed parts for this conversion that differ from my list. When researching all this, I found that the diesel models seem to have different ducting in the front and need fewer parts than gasoline models. So this list is unique to UK/EU spec diesel models, but can be used as a guide for cars built for other markets.

Rear Conversion Parts: ("Included" designates it came as part of the kit from DM Autoteile)
Price SKU Description
Included 51128048594 Rear Bumper
Included 51127904994 Diffuser
Included 51127906845 Guide, Bottom center
Included 63147842955 Reflector, rear left
Included 63147842956 Reflector, rear right
£19.22 51128048592 Tow hook cover
£28.82 51127906292 Guide, center rear
£26.85 51127904979 Adapter
TOTAL PARTS: £220
TOTAL LABOR + PAINT: £575

Front Conversion Parts:
Price SKU Description
513.68 51-11-8-048-668 Trim Cover Bumper Primered Front
19.19 51-11-8-048-679 FLAP PRIME COATED LEFT
19.19 51-11-8-048-680 FLAP PRIME COATED RIGHT
2.84 51-11-8-048-019 LEVER LEFT
2.75 51-11-8-048-020 LEVER RIGHT
4.46 51-11-8-050-115 DUMMY PLUG LEFT
4.46 51-11-8-050-116 DUMMY PLUG RIGHT
24.3 51-74-8-049-347 FRAME
55.85 51-11-8-037-631 MOUNT, BUMPER, FRONT
21.5 51-11-7-903-991 IMPACT ABSORBER,
26.6 51-75-8-045-195 COVER, BOTTOM LEFT
26.6 51-75-8-045-196 COVER, BOTTOM RIGHT
23.12 51-75-7-905-276 M Adapter For Engine Encapsulation
25.8 51-11-7-903-894 GRILL, AIR INTAKE, CENTER
46.46 51-11-8-055-133 Grill for air intake, closed, left
59.91 51-11-8-055-134 Grill, air intake, open, right
5.08 51-11-8-049-673 COVER, BOTTOM LEFT
5.08 51-11-8-049-674 COVER, BOTTOM RIGHT
19.24 51-74-8-049-708 Air Duct Front Bottom
16.97 51-11-8-048-681 Cover Tow Fitting Front Primered
81.39 51-75-8-035-971 M ENGINE COMPARTMENT ENCAPSULATION FRONT 2WD
TOTAL PARTS: £1,005
TOTAL LABOR + PAINT: £800

Side Skirts and Spoiler:
145 Side skirts from DM Autoteile (ebay)- I installed these myself
75 Spoiler from ebay- body shop installed this
TOTAL PARTS: £225
TOTAL LABOR + PAINT: £175

This brings the grand total for the complete M-sport conversion, with parts, labor and paint, to £3,000. Note that this includes the 20% VAT that I had to pay in the UK, so if you're doing this elsewhere with a lower sales tax rate, then you can adjust accordingly. The moral of the story is that it's not cheap, and there is no way I would have done this if my car hadn't been hit and insurance was paying for about 80% of that £3k bill. If you're debating between buying an SE model vs and M-sport model, it's probably money well spent if you just opt for the M-sport right out of the gate.

I've attached a before pic for the stock SE with the 351 wheels, and then the after pics with the full M-sport conversion and 343 wheels. Anyway, hopefully, this will help anyone who is thinking of doing this conversion to their car.

[.BMW.]

Looks great!

[ghotch]

Looks clean...I like the wheels! I wonder if they come in a lighter grey? Here's mine for comparison!



https://photos.app.goo.gl/nEs7xBQb8e92ZcKx9

[Bozman52]

Originally Posted by ghotch

Looks clean...I like the wheels! I wonder if they come in a lighter grey? Here's mine for comparison!



https://photos.app.goo.gl/nEs7xBQb8e92ZcKx9

Our cars are twins! I got the wheels from an M5 owner who had upgraded his wheels. They were originally silver, but he had them powdercoated gloss black. I know you can get the 343 wheels in black from BMW, but they're flat black instead of gloss. However, I personally like the gloss black against the silver. If I had a different color car, the flat may be preferred, though.

[JPritch]

Looks smoootthhhh! Great job on the build!

[Ickdeep]

Looking good!

[lsturbointeg]

Sweet!

[wcr3d]

Looks good the only thing I notice is so you only have one tailpipe?

[Bozman52]

Thanks for the kind words, fellas. She's still a work in progress, but looks so much better than when I bought her!

Regarding the single tailpipe query, I had initially thought that all N57 diesels had a single outlet. However, I just did some Google image searching and saw that some have dual outlets. Every 530d and 535d that I've seen in Europe has a single outlet, so perhaps BMW did a dual exhaust for the US market? I'm not really sure . . .

[wcr3d]

I zoomed in, looks like the diffuser has just one opening, I thought two and looked unbalanced.

[Bozman52]

Ah, I see what you were saying now. Yes, my car has one muffler with two pipes on it. However, I did see pics on Google of N57 diesel models with two mufflers (one on each side of the car) each with a single pipe. I'm not sure why there's the difference, though.