Z4 E89 bonnet misalignment

[philip hedley]

Hi everyone, happy Christmas and best wishes for 2022.
I've been looking for an ideal E89 Z4 for a while. A few I've looked at have an inconsistant panel gap between the front of the bonnet and grille. I was wondering if there is an issue with the cars or they'd been bumped.
I had a '87 XR2 many years ago, the bonnet used to drop at the front possibly due to being hinged there.

TIA

 

[Smartbear]

This is commonly caused by the bonnet not being closed properly, there’s a latch on each side & they don’t always click down properly unless you press on both sides as the bonnet goes down.
Rob

 

[Pondrew]

Hi everyone, happy Christmas and best wishes for 2022.

And to you too.
As Rob said above. Easy way to tell is give it a push and it should locate. My other BMW does this all the time as one of the holding clasps gets gummed up. WD40 solves all issues.
Good luck with your search; are you after a particular model?

 

[Zed Baron]

There are six (could be eight) screws along the top of the bumper (next to where the front of bonnet sits), these are easily adjusted to get the alignment correct.

 

[Nictrix]

There are rubber bungs/stops that can be adjusted to fix this.
There may be 4 of these and are quite easy to spot.

 

[Deepseaskateboard]

Hi everyone, happy Christmas and best wishes for 2022.
I've been looking for an ideal E89 Z4 for a while. A few I've looked at have an inconsistant panel gap between the front of the bonnet and grille. I was wondering if there is an issue with the cars or they'd been bumped.
I had a '87 XR2 many years ago, the bonnet used to drop at the front possibly due to being hinged there.

TIA

It is not closed properly

 

[Zed Baron]

If the bonnet is not closed properly the dreaded..... BONG sounds off as you drive away

 

[SV8Predator]

If the bonnet is not closed properly the dreaded..... BONG sounds off as you drive away

Not in my experience. If it's correctly latched on one side, I don't think this happens.

 

[Zed Baron]

If the bonnet is not closed properly the dreaded..... BONG sounds off as you drive away

Not in my experience. If it's correctly latched on one side, I don't think this happens.

I've found if the bonnet is not properly latched on both sides once you drive off and hit a certain speed the audible warning happens and bonnet open warning comes up on the dash

 

[304frp]

Also to add to the above , ensure ithe front bumper hasn’t received a bump and broken a plastic bracket and been poorly repaired.its easy to adjust panel gaps on bonnet via rubber twisting bump stops. Bumper is a little more difficult.
My Zed bongs on bonnet not latched from the off .

 

[jenniferlouise]

304frp I’m intrigued… excuse me piggybacking this thread on bonnet alignment but I’m interested on bumper alignment to the wings. I know there is a hanging bracket but can’t see any adjustment. I’ve recently had the bumper repainted which included removing it, and it’s gone back on with the same gaps. I see no damage on either side and all screws are present; the gaps are similar both sides. I may be being fussy but I recently saw a Z4 for sale at it had much closer shut lines between the front bumper, headlight and wings. any solutions? Thank you

 

[B21]

All look like front end bumper damage caused by some form of impact…my perfectly aligned bumper now has a skew caused by a nose heavy landing..there are some deformable mounts that sacrificially give way…nee to take the whole bumper off to fix…

Your issues may vary..

 

[flybobbie]

Having refitted my right headlamp now have to align it and set the gaps around.
What another pain.
I resorted to actually bending the bracket using the hole has a leverage point.
Why BMW didn't provide more adjust like screws either end of that bracket to set that gap between bonnet and bumper..

 

[jenniferlouise]

Having refitted my right headlamp now have to align it and set the gaps around.
What another pain.
I resorted to actually bending the bracket using the hole has a leverage point.
Why BMW didn't provide more adjust like screws either end of that bracket to set that gap between bonnet and bumper..

thats what I was thinking of doing too…

 

[BeardyJon]

Is there a guide somewhere on aligning the front body panels? Need to take my bumper off to fit some new parts and I'm sure I'm going to run into alignment issues when I get there.

 

[Busterboo]

At low speed, I drove into the rear bumper of a car that had entered a roundabout and then decided to stop. There was no damage to the other car and, although my bumper 'popped' on both sides, there was none to mine.

I realised then how ... er ... 'dynamic' the large bumper, large bonnet and their attachments are. To un-pop my bumper meant only pushing it back into its clips on each side. Later, I checked all the gaps with a vernier caliper and found they were even and, to my surprise, quite large compared to other cars I've had recently.

I also realised that, despite their 'gappiness', they're well designed for the jobs they do.

 

[flybobbie]

You can knock Rover, but my MGTF had small alignment holes, you place small say 2mm drill in hole and tighten nuts, body panels lined up.
I had to replace a wing.

 

[flybobbie]

At low speed, I drove into the rear bumper of a car that had entered a roundabout and then decided to stop. There was no damage to the other car and, although my bumper 'popped' on both sides, there was none to mine.

I realised then how ... er ... 'dynamic' the large bumper, large bonnet and their attachments are. To un-pop my bumper meant only pushing it back into its clips on each side. Later, I checked all the gaps with a vernier caliper and found they were even and, to my surprise, quite large compared to other cars I've had recently.

I also realised that, despite their 'gappiness', they're well designed for the jobs they do.

Someone reversed into my front bumper at works barrier, broke the grille, but bumper went back into shape.
But now hairline cracks in lacquer.
I was just about to get out of car to use my key card to raise barrier for them.
Every good deed eh...

 

[Busterboo]

Someone reversed into my front bumper at works barrier, broke the grille, but bumper went back into shape.
But now hairline cracks in lacquer.

Was slowing from 50 into a 30 limit in a big-bumpered Porsche. Saw a pigeon on the other side of the road. It looked straight at me and then flew into my bumper. "Hairline cracks." Surprisingly expensive.

Good luck with yours.