My e39 540 was totaled and I'm looking at a 2008 550 to replace it. I found a nice car but the previous owner ran it onto curbs a lot. The entire bottom of the bumper is scraped up. Also, the ends at the fenders are pulled down 1/4" on the driver side and 1/2" on the passenger side. There are not any cracks in the bumper which I believe is a good sign.

It would be nice to loosen everything, adjust/realign it and then bolt everything back up so there isn't a gap between the fenders and bumper. I never had success with this on e39s, but I'm not familiar enough with e60s. Has anyone been able to adjust a front bumper that is not off by much and have it stay?

Eventually I would have the front bumper repaired/replaced. But I would wait a while to give the wife some driving time to learn not to pull on top of curbs. I will take it to a body shop to get an estimate and use that to negotiate a lower price. Just trying to decide if I could fix it so it does not bother me every time I see it.

 

i'm sure you could remove it and realign it some. and it wouldnt cost too much to replace it if you were going with an aftermarket bumper.

 

I'm sure fixing in would not be to much. I don't want to do it immediately because I see the wife driving it after it gets fixed and running onto a curb. I'll let her do it a few times until she realizes when she needs to stop and then I'll get it fixed. It just annoys me seeing the misalignment, so I want to get it fixed temporarily. In my previously e39s I could adjust the bumper and the gap would come back after 3-4 weeks. I would like not having to readjust the bumper every month.

 

Contradiction in terms, you want it fixed but you're going to let her drive it and probably knock it out again, then you'll fix it again. I know this sounds like life but why not suck it up until all of the knocking is done?