Last fall I had the itch to change up the look of my car some, and the OEM front lip spoiler was pretty dinged up from scraping on the bottom as well as a bit of road debris that took a small chunk of paint off the topside.
Rather than getting it repainted, I replaced it with a carbon fiber front chin splitter from OSIR instead!
Installation was super easy, just remove about 6 bolts on the underside (T25 if I recall correctly) and then the OEM front chin splitter pulls out. There are clips so you have to tug pretty hard, but they are strong so don’t worry about giving it some elbow grease.
Once out, the OSIR unit goes in the same way, and unlike my rear diffuser this did not need any trimming or modification to make it fit. The only trick is to make sure all of the tabs line up, otherwise it won’t slide into place. You will hear it click when it’s firmly locked in.
You can see how the tabs and holes have to align above. I found it easier to take the fog light grilles out, which also just pull out by applying a little pressure.
All in all, installation took less than 30 minutes including the time it took to jack my car up since it is so low I couldn’t really see what I was doing otherwise. You don’t need any special tools and this is very easy to DIY.
Once I had the OEM piece removed, I then took it to a body shop to get resprayed as it’s a cheaper job if they don’t have to do any disassembly or reassembly labor – I think they charged $150 for it in total.
On the underside, I applied SlipLo Bumper Protection to help protect this piece, knowing that you couldn’t simply respray it and with hope to be able to sell this part when I eventually part it out for close to what I paid for it.
I never had the chance to really put the SlipLo to the test, but I think it’s a cool product and after a few months of use the front lip was still in pristine condition, so I guess it worked!
Once on the car, I put the white middle splitter support back onto the car to give it some contrast, and was really happy with the look.
It is crazy how different it looks with this one piece black/CF rather than painted, but it definitely gives the car a whole new vibe.
I later reverted back to the factory (white) front chin splitter and you can compare and contrast the two photographs to see which you like better. To me the OEM finish is definitely cleaner and more broadly appealing, while the carbon fiber has a more aggressive look that distinguishes the car from other TT(RS) models.
The nice thing about carbon fiber, as opposed to black, is that up close it does give the car way more character and texture – especially if the sun hits it just right like above.
OSIR makes carbon fiber “blades” which are the fins above the splitter, although these are prohibitively expensive and in my opinion aren’t very noticeable over the black factory ones.
While everyone has their preferences, and I enjoyed running the carbon fiber front chin splitter, ultimately I’m happy I went back to the factory finish. I enjoy the OEM plus look, and there was simply too much contrast with the carbon fiber and it minimized the aggressive shape of the front end by hiding the bottom edge.
That being said, looking at these photos I kind of miss it – it paired well with the carbon fiber rear wing/diffuser as well as my OEM carbon fiber mirrors.
I’ve since sold the splitter and it’s off to a new home (locally!) but I wanted to share the pics and install tips while it was still fresh on my mind, so hence this post.
Any questions, comments, or feedback? Leave me a comment below!
