Plastic bumber adjustment Q.

[hoveringuy]

I got the valence centered around the bumper this morning. After welding one of the top brackets back on I removed the bolts on the bottom brackets. That allowed me to pull forward on the bottom, which rotated the valence and fixed the gaps, top and bottom. I had to install some washers between the bracket and the frame at the bottom.

Looks much better now. Thanks for the input everyone!

[hoveringuy]

No, the bracket was still lined up with where it came apart.

There's something else going on.

The car was (and mostly still is) beautiful when I bought it 8 years ago but I've always known it's had a replacement hood.

Why??

It has the original fenders so any bump couldn't have been too bad. I'm starting to think the valence has been taken off and wasn't put on correctly.

[Jordan]

and thats why its sagged.

[hoveringuy]

I took the grills off this morning and loosened the screws holding the brackets to the radiator support like Jordan said. One of the spotwelds between the bracket and valence was broken so I will need to take the bumper off and really dig into what's going on.

[Van Westervelt]

take some better pictures including the top of the grills, corners of the bumpers etc... looks like it got hit pushing the bumper up and bending the valance in/down. But its hard to tell with that pic.

[hoveringuy]

I took a closer look at it tonight and it IS the same part. I'll try pulling it up before I remove the whole bumper.

I've had the car for 8 years now... this has bugged me forever but I've done everything else but this. I've always meant to do a complete front end cosmetic refresh and the time is coming soon.

[Jordan]

You need to adjust your valance, not the bumper.

Not really interested that you don't think its the same part. You need to remove the grills, loosen 2 bolts attaching the valance to the core support, pull up, and retighten the bolts.

You do not have to remove the bumper.

[hoveringuy]

I need to stop by Sears for a T55 tomorrow and I will take it off when I get a chance.

It has an oil cooler... it's in my basement. I'm replacing the lines because they were seeping at the fittings.

[xLibelle]

a 325is with no oil cooler?

[xLibelle]

its hard to tell what is actually wrong from the picture you supplied.

remove the bumper by droping out the screw from each shock. unplug the lights and pull bumper off the car forward. youll see each shock is held in place with two screws. loosen those up and get the shocks as low as possible. tighten back up, install bumper and insert the two screws again. before tightening these down, you can adjust the bumpers position laterally (fore,back,rt,lt). This should lower the front middle sectiong of the bumper. If its still not enough, pull the bumper back off and adjust the black metal brackets on the back side of the bumper core... CAUTION here. if you break these loose, you MAY have to seperate the core from the cover to put a Torx head on the other end of the bolt to hold it still to tighten down. (*explination at bottom of post on tips on doing this)
For the sides, its two screws per side, found on the inside of the fender. loosen, manipulate bumper ends to desired location, and tighten back down.

If your bumper still looks high in the valance slot the bumper sits at, then your body work is tweaked. First place to look is left and right of the oil cooler where the valence lower legs mount. bmw designed this to be weak, i think it could have been a little bit more beefy. The next factor about those mount points is, the lower radiator mount could be pushed back too. If any of this happened, the lower part of the valance is pushed in and that gap the bumper sits has been widened. you have to pull up on the valence to bend it back up.
Lastly, just from that picture alone, i see a gap under the kidney's that a little large, meaning your entire valance could be sagging. i think there are 6 bolts that can raise the valance position.

*before you destroy molding and clips, think logical! The plastic cover is held on by plastic expanding rivets. From the inside of the bumper, push the center piece of each rivet out, in that, you will have a bunch of little pegs caught inside the moulding before youre done. once pegs are removed, wiggle the cover off the core. to reinstall, remove moldings first, reassemble expanding rivets, mount cover over core and insert rivets. reinstall moulding strips.

[hoveringuy]

Anyone have a similar to picture to compare it with?

[Van Westervelt]

the shocks can move up and down.

at least mine can.....

That wouldnt make the center of the bumper appear higher than the outsides. :roll:

[whowhatwhere]

the shocks can move up and down.

at least mine can.....

[Van Westervelt]

Looks like you could have a broken/tweaked bumper from a light impact as well. You may be able to solve it with new bumper shocks if those are what got tweaked. Otherwise, its a new FG Bumper COre, or Valance.

[hoveringuy]

Here's a picture... how to fix??