W211 E320 cdi facelift. Bonnet to bumper gap

[Nicebutdim]

A few weeks ago I bought a 2007 E320 Cdi. It's the v6 engine facelift model. Great car. Love it.

I've been going through the process of making sure everything is serviced and working properly and I like to do my own work.

One niggle was that the bonnet to bumper gap was way too big. Over 1 inch. The bonnet lined up perfectly with the front wings. It became clear the bumper was sitting too low.

The near-side front corner of the bumper was scuffed and the headlight fixing tabs had been bodged so there was evidence of a light front end shunt.

The outer plastic bumper fastens to a long aluminium bumper-support-bar

Loosening the fixings which held the outer plastic bumper did nothing to improve the situation. So I began to examine the bumper support-bar and the support-bar brackets.

The photo below shows a support-bar bracket. There are two of these which bolt to the chassis one at either side of the front of the car.

The support bar fastens between the U shape fixing at the front of the photo. The plastic outer bumper attaches to the support bar.

I noticed that where the aluminium box section bolts to the black painted frame (rear of photo) it was closer to the frame at the bottom edge by about 1 or 2 mm.

So I loosened each of the eight torque bolts (4 per bracket.....you can see 2 in the photo, the other two are on the other side out of view) and then jacked up the front of the car using the centre of the bumper support bar as my jacking point. This caused the support bracket to pivot on the loose torque bolts and gave enough movement to bring the bumper support-bar back to the correct height. Then I re tightened the torque bolts in their new positions and lowered the jack.

The box sections are about a foot long so a pivot of 1 mm at one end gives a lot more movement at the other.

This has corrected the bonnet gap which now appears comparable to other 320s I have seen. I was unable to find any description of this type of adjustment anywhere on the net so I decided to share in the hope that this will help somebody else.

 

[Azeem]

Thanks for sharing. My issue is that my bonnet isn't aligned with the right fender, the bonnet sits slightly higher than the fender. This results in a gap between bumper and bonnet? I always thought that I need to adjust the bonnet first? How can I do that? Where does this bracket go and can I adjust it manually using a jack or do I need to go to specialist? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nicebutdim]

Thanks for sharing. My issue is that my bonnet isn't aligned with the right fender, the bonnet sits slightly higher than the fender. This results in a gap between bumper and bonnet? I always thought that I need to adjust the bonnet first? How can I do that? Where does this bracket go and can I adjust it manually using a jack or do I need to go to specialist? Thanks in advance.

It sounds like you need to adjust your bonnet. There are a number of useful YouTube videos which describe bonnet adjustment. I suggest you view these before you take any action. If you lack the necessary skills, confidence and tools you need to go to a specialist.

 

[Azeem]

Thanks. I managed to adjust the bonnet.