black grills or flash2pass?

[JimD]

I haven't spent any money on my little bimmer in awhile and feel like remedying that. The two ideas I am toying with are replacing my front grilles with black ones and adding the "flash2pass" garage door opener. For those unfamilar with the latter, it seems like a simple upgrade to make the headlight stalk function as the garage door opener switch. You replace the button of the garage door opener in the house with a receiver and you put a little sending unit under the hood tapped into the high beam circuit. When you hit the high beams twice in under a second, your garage door goes up. I was too cheap to get homelink and don't have a great place for the opener.

I've also found threads where people just buried the opener in the console and put a momentary switch in the ashtray area. That would obviously be cheaper but I like the idea of triggering the garage without even having to take my hands off the wheel.

The price is about the same and I'll undoubtedly do both eventually but which would you do first?

Jim

[1ottawa]

wouldn't that burn your headlights faster?

[JimD]

Maybe but I hardly ever use high beams so I don't think I would notice it.

Jim

[italiantank26]

I'm curious as to why everyone hates their chrome grills and switch over to black, I love my grilles each to his own i guess.

[emtrey]

blackout grill upgrade depends on color..I think this works well...

[Mark M]

Because in all their infinite wisdom, on the 135 BMW chose to chrome the individual verticle slots in the center of the grill too. Which in my opinion is too much chrome for a car that has all black trim and black chrome exhaust. Black grill looks good!

[Jcrewsn]

Originally Posted by italiantank26

I'm curious as to why everyone hates their chrome grills and switch over to black, I love my grilles each to his own i guess.

Well... those of us with sport packages have shadowline black molding (non-chrome) and the tailpipe is a shiny black.....why are the grilles chrome???

[cadeucsb]

Originally Posted by Jcrewsn

Well... those of us with sport packages have shadowline black molding (non-chrome) and the tailpipe is a shiny black.....why are the grilles chrome???

exactly, its very out of place when its the only chrome on the entire car.

[Monterra]

grills

[JasonCSU]

My garage door opener fits perfectly in the ashtray after pulling out the removable tray. I think most people use the ashtray for storing their change though.

[rc'Z]

When I had a Z, I did a hook and loop with a small door remote inside my side door map pocket.

[SV Concepts II]

Black grilles first, the garage door opener thing seems so trivial...IMHO. But then again my car has an integrated garage door opener on the headliner

[Cisitalia]

You guys convinced me that black grills are the way to go. But did that convince Jim or not?

Before this thread I did not really consider them. Ok, where do you get the black grills from?

thx

[emtrey]

its a BMW part...I think they just lowered the price with lowering of other BMW performance parts.

parts number form BMW accessory catalog 2 responses behind this one...

[SV Concepts III]

Go with the grill, I would prefer to do the homelink retrofit if you don't have the garage buttons inside the car.

[emtrey]

Increase the aggresive look of your BMW with this high gloss black kidney grille.


BMW Performance Black Kidney Grille-Left(PN: 51 71 0 441 921)
BMW Performance Black Kidney Grille-Right(PN: 51 71 0 441 920)
$84.36

Each price is the suggested retail price and is subject to change. Price excludes installation and taxes

[JimD]

I'm still leaning towards the flash2pass first (grills later). I put the remote in the tray in the drivers side door pocket which works OK but I have to reach over there each time to get it and put it back I think using the high beams is an advantage over homelink because you don't have to remove your hand from the wheel. But I like the grills too. I bookmarked this source:

http://www.jlevistreetwerks.com/1-Se...duct_info.html

My 128 is white and I think the all black grille looks better than the black center, chrome outside grills I have (I think 135s are all chrome but 128s are only chrome on the outside). The top of my convertible is black and I put on a black license plate holder. The mud flaps are also black. I painted the calipers red, however. I have the sport pack so I have the black/chrome trim around the body to top interface. I'm kind of going for the black and white theme. I haven't taken the 128i in chrome off the back yet. Putting on black "128i" seems like it would make it stand out too much so I'm thinking of just taking it off.

All inputs welcome.

Jim

[marvinp]

I think the flash2pass is cool. I'd like that. On white, black grills might look like there's just a gaping hole.

I wish instead of black gloss, I could get black chrome grills that would match the black chrome tailpipe which I think looks great.

[SV Concepts III]

Jim,

If you do the blackout theme on the car, then I would do the grills. If you are keeping the car otherwise stock, then I suggest body color or the factory chrome.

[cagekicker]

bmw got it right

[ruffstik]

Personally I can't stand chrome....once you go black you will not go back!