There are 2 reasons why I wanted to upgrade the grill.
1. I wanted blackout X6 badge to match IND painted X6 M60i emblem that I installed on the rear.
2. All new M and M Performance cars are coming out with horizontal slat style kidney grill. I wanted to upgrade to keep my car look like modern BMWs.
I wasn't 100% sure if X6M LCI kidney would fit on M60i, but their shape looked similar.
I went ahead and purchased this from BMW of Seattle online parts department (https://www.getbmwpartsnow.com/).
Total came out to $310 ($262 for the part + tax and shipping).
You could get knockoff from Ebay for about half the price.
I didn't want to deal with fitment issue with the Ebay part, so I went with the original BMW part.
Part #: 51-13-8-087-271
Part Name: Front Ornamental Grille 511311
They did not have this part in stock, so it took me about 2 weeks to receive the part.
It came in very nicely packaged (there was additional shipping box outside the box shown here for additional protection).
Installation was super easy.
First step is to open hood to access the grill tabs.
All you have to do is push down 6x grill tabs and it will release the grill from the bumper.
However, before you fully take off the grill from the bumper, you have to remove the front camera module from the camera housing (no need to disconnect camera module cable).
Finally, put the camera module back to new grill's camera housing then push the grill into the bumper to finalize the installation.
Here is comparison picture of both grills on the floor.
And finally comparison with them installed.
I am really happy with the result.
I think horizontal slat grill does fit much better with LCI X6's skinnier headlight and it also does make the car's front end look meaner and wider.
