rodybmw

I finally fixed the gap that I had between the hood and the top of the M-Tech bumper in my car. I know there were a couple of people here who had the same problem and wanted to know how to fix it.

There are two metal brackets that are needed for mounting the M bumper to the bumper carrier. When I first did my installation I noticed that those brackets were being pushed down by the black styrofoam on the bumper carrier and thought about making cutouts in the foam so that the bottom of the brackets sit flush to the bottom of the foam, but then I decided to try it that way first. I did and noticed a bigger than usual gap above the bumper. Later on I noticed that on some of the installation pictures on this board it looked like some people had done the same thing that I was thinking of doing (makeing a cutout in the foam). I decided to try this but did not have time until today. It ended up getting rid of most of the extra gap, but there was still a bit more than I liked, so I tried to use some thick washers as spacers or shims under the mounting points at the top of the bumper. This helped get rid of the rest of the extra gap. I have directions and pics of both methods that I am posting below. I will call the foam cutout "Method 1" and post it here, and I will call the washer/spacer method "Method 2" and post it in a reply below. If anyone has this gap and wants to get rid of it I would suggest trying the second method first since it is MUCH easier and it works quite well. If that does not solve it completely then try Method 1 as well.


<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Method 1</span>

First of all notice how in the picture below the bracket is sitting below the big black foam on the bumper carrier. It does not even look that bad in the picture but once the bumper is put on it pushes down on the black foam which in turn pushes down on the bracket. This makes it very difficult to fit the bumper, and it is physically forced down, hence the big gap above the bmper. The foam needs to be cut out to a slightly larger dimension that the bracket so that the bracket sits inside the foam and the bottom of the bracket is flush with the bottom of the foam. You can see all these in the pictures below:

rodybmw

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Method 2</span>

The second method that I used (which I recommend trying first) was to use washers as spacers or shims. The washers were approximately 2mm thick and were placed under the mounting points at the top of the bumper so that they would keep the top of the bumper a bit lifted from it's usual position. You should probably buy 2, 3, and 4mm thick washers and experiment with them until you get the gap to a point where you like it. Here are the pics and directions for Method 2:

rodybmw

Here are the final pics. The gap was reduced by a total of 5mm using method 1 and 2.

stream

Nice write-up. Looks good now!

alohalc

nice job ! you need a new sig pic now .

coolguy

Does this still apply for latest Mtech kits? or only ones in 2005?

southgate

pretty cool

rodybmw

We now know that there are different foam shock absorber pieces that are installed on E60's that come with the M-Tech bumper from the factory. Some people purchased these M-Tech specific shock absorber foams and installed them in place of the foam pieces that came on the car and that seemed to have solved the problem.

Here's the ETK page and part numbers for both the foam shock absorbers for the standard bumper and for the M-Tech Bumper. This ETK page is for the Pre-LCI E60..........However, the pre-LCI E60 and the LCI E60 use the same foam pieces for the M-Tech bumpers (same part numbers), even though the foam pieces are different on the pre-LCI and LCI's with the standard bumpers.

coolguy

So, is the correct foam pieces included from quad_m ? I am having mine installed this weekend.. So I want to be sure this problem don't exist. Since I am paying a installer to do this Mtech install

If not, I guess I have to advise the installer to go with Washers route to fill the gap.. provided he can buy them from somewhere

rodybmw

The foam pieces do not come with the M-Kit.....they didn't when I did my install and as far as I know they still do not come with it. I would really recommend that you get the M foam pieces from a dealer instead of using the washer method. They should'nt be expensive (I think $20-$30 per side), and they should result in a much better fit than the foam cut-out/washer method that I describe above. On my car the gap decreased when I used the procedure described above, however, it's still not as good as the ones that have been installed at the factory with the correct foam. So I would recommend getting the correct foam pieces and having the installer replace the ones that came on the car with the new ones.