Turner Motorsport Skid Plate Does Not Fit

[M3AN]

I'm about to email Turner but I thought I'd ask here as well, does anybody have any actual experience with this tray? I purchased two, largely due to the recommendations here, and it doesn't fit, in fact it's miles off. Neither of them fit.

If configured as per the instructions (here - PDF) it's impossible to fit, the slots on the tray are over an inch wider than the brackets. If I reverse the brackets (i.e. don't follow the instructions) the slots on the tray are too narrow to fit. The only available alternative is to swap the brackets over and then they're not level with the bottom of the car so won't work.

If it were a few mm I could put that down to something being bent or not true but we're talking ~35mm here so something is obviously not right.

If I simply hold the tray up it also fouls the sway bar (although the hubs are at full droop because the car is on stands this is still not acceptable).

1997 M3 Evo. Any thoughts?

Brackets installed as per instructions and level (i.e. aligned with base of bumper):


Tray slot measurement:


Bracket measurement:

[Westopher]

I haven't seen anything about this part yet other than this, but holy shit, the new turner lip fitment is a complete catastrophe. I don't know what the fuck they are doing with their quality control, but it's not good.

[Braymond141]

The tray fits just fine... in fact, it's way better than Motion Motorsport.

Are you positive you have the drop down brackets installed correctly? Are the rivnuts in the chassic leg installed flat or crooked?
Are you positive you can't just gently pry them out to fit the panel?
Has your car been in a front end accident before?

[M3AN]

The tray fits just fine... in fact, it's way better than Motion Motorsport.

Are you positive you have the drop down brackets installed correctly? Are the rivnuts in the chassic leg installed flat or crooked?
Are you positive you can't just gently pry them out to fit the panel?
Has your car been in a front end accident before?

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately neither of mine fit straight on, two of us have looked at it now.

No significant impacts to the car and everything else bolts up okay under there. I haven't actually tried to move/pry the brackets out a bit, there is some movement in them but I'm not sure if it's enough. I suppose I can loosen the brackets at the top to test. It would be great if it were this simple!

If you have one, and it's convenient, it would be great to get a slot-to-slot measurement to compare to mine. Turner have responded to my email so I'm in touch with them and their customer service has been really good for me in the past.

Thanks.

[M3AN]

Okay so Turner came back to me earlier in the week and I've only now got to give it a go... their advice was to bend or stretch the brackets. So, with quite a lot of force I stretched them out, each well over half an inch and bolted the bugger up. At that point I was able to confirm it will 100% foul on the sway bar (Eibach) at full droop, well before full droop actually. I only got the plate up by disconnecting the drop links and pushing the bar back. If it were all done up (on ramps say) then as soon as the front of the car was lifted the sway bar would rest against the tray. That's clearly not safe.

Given that the tray bracket mounts and sway bar bushing mounts are in a fixed position relative to one and other something must be wrong with the plate design, it can't be positioned any further forward on the car which is the only way it might fit (but then it wouldn't fit the actual bumper). The solution is simple but shouldn't be necessary - I can take it to a machine shop and get 15mm chopped off the centre of the rearward edge of the tray. I'm going to go back to Turner and ask their views, they've been helpful so far.

Oddly, some of their pre-drilled holes don't line up as their instructions say they will. The outermost hole that they say connects to the arch liner is a hole to nowhere, just air (the slot in the arch liner used to clip it to the pork chop) so there's nothing to use that hole for and the rear outermost hole that they say requires a rivnut into the bumper does not, it actually connects to the arch liner. I have just installed brand new arch liners.

Sway bar pics are about 2 inches from full droop!

[JitteryJoe]

Doesn't the bar pivot back when the car is planted on the ground under full weight? I seem to recall a similar concern when I installed my MM skid plate with my coil overs and aftermarket sway bar. I do recall that it was important to get the right size adjustable sway bar links.

[M3AN]

Doesn't the bar pivot back when the car is planted on the ground under full weight? I seem to recall a similar concern when I installed my MM skid plate with my coil overs and aftermarket sway bar. I do recall that it was important to get the right size adjustable sway bar links.

Yes it does pivot back under load, but there's too much contact when unloaded to be safe and it would also mean the full unspring weight would be resting on that bar/tray interface every time the car got lifted off its front wheels for whatever reason which, over time, would cause problems somewhere.

I'm using standard droplinks as per the fitting instructions for the sway bar. Tray is just too deep it seems, a mate has a plasma cutter if it comes to that.

[JitteryJoe]

It may be that the fitment is fine with the stock sway bar but not OK with your aftermarket sway bar. Are your links connected at the furthest outward hole on the sway bar? If so, that would likely have the most outward rotation toward the tray. Regardless, trimming a quarter inch or so off the edge seems a reasonable solution.

[cypher448]

Glad I read this thread, I've been debating between this and the JT Design under panel

[Braymond141]

Glad I read this thread, I've been debating between this and the JT Design under panel

Get the Turner panel. The issues here are not normal.

JTD is absolute trash. DO NOT buy it.

[M3AN]

Get the Turner panel. The issues here are not normal.

They might not be normal but they're exposing a shortcoming or two of the design and Turner have accepted that.

Buy with caution until they update the design which they're implying they'll do once we've sorted it out.

[Braymond141]

They might not be normal but they're exposing a shortcoming or two of the design and Turner have accepted that.

Buy with caution until they update the design which they're implying they'll do once we've sorted it out.

I really think your issue is isolated. I've already installed this panel on a client car and had zero issues. It fixed every problem the Motion panel had and forced me to give up
the idea of coming out with my own.

[Braymond141]

As you can see, it fits perfect and there are zero issues with the sway bar at full droop.

[M3AN]

As you can see, it fits perfect and there are zero issues with the sway bar at full droop.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the problem's not at my end and the plate measures up with the dimensions they've sent through. Their solution is shorter drop links but that's not ideal for any number of reasons. I'm using stock drop links on M3 B6 struts and an Eibach sway bay which is far from an uncommon combo it it's too long by ~40mm, that's not an installation or chassis issue.

For a confirmed fit we'd need to compare struts, drop links and sway bar, stock more than likely fits but there are likely to be many that don't given my experience.

I've not decided what to do you but I might just cut the plate down, either way Turner need to update their website and this discovery can only help them and other potential owners.

[M3AN]

Okay, so I've measured up the required cut and, as you can see, this is not a trivial or marginal fitment issue. To reiterate I'm running a very common combination of Bilstein B6 + Eibach Pro Plus springs and bars with OE length Meyle HD droplinks, arguably the most common aftermarket combination for these cars.

With the bar set to the softest setting (rearward holes) I need to shave 30mm off the tray, with the bar set to stiffest (forward holes) I'd need to shave a whopping 40mm off the tray.



A friend has a plasma cutter so I'm going to cut one of the two I have back by 30mm and recheck fitment, I'll probably do the other one at 40mm - either way I'll lose no utility.

I've not shared this with Turner yet but at the very least expect them to update their website to advise fitment considerations. To be honest I find the entire thing a bit strange because my Eibach bar has almost an identical profile as the stock bar. 🤷♂️