Since the M340i/xDrive was designed to make impressive power in stock form with its B58 engine (and loads more with upgrades), these cars feature some heavy-duty cooling hardware. In order to keep oil temperatures down (something many late model M cars have struggled with) requires a large oil cooler. BMW engineers positioned the oil cooler quite low under the car, positioned horizontally - an aerodynamic design that creates a vacuum force while driving, drawing heat from the oil cooler. The issue some of the vehicle owners have experienced is road debris from small branches to chunks of ice that have impacted the OE belly pan hard enough to crack the oil cooler draining the car's oil rapidly. Being one of the lowest points of the car, even a close encounter with a parking block can mean the end of the road for the factory belly pan - and oil cooler. Damage to the belly pan means reduced cooling, which can result in dangerously high engine temperatures. Once the belly pan is damaged, there is no longer any protection for the oil cooler, meaning damage to the cooler and a catastrophic loss in oil pressure may be right around the corner.
Designed using 8 gauge 5052 aluminum, this skid plate kit offers plenty of strength to protect your oil cooler and transmission. We also made sure this would be an easy, reversible upgrade by maintaining OE mounting locations and hardware that requires NO cutting or modification to your vehicle for fitment. Our engineering team also felt it was important to maintain some of the cooling features the BMW engineers spec'd out such as having a trim seal to fit snugly against the cooler edges to create the same vacuum cooling effects as stock.
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