1988 325is bumper question

[daforce007]

Hey everyone, I'm getting my aunt's 1988 325is for college (yay!!!!) and I have a couple of questions regarding its bumper. I notice it has the older style metal bumpers rather than the "slimmer" plastic bumpers found on the 88+ e30's. My question is: why? I thought that the 1988+ e30's had the plastic bumpers (i guess thats not the case for all of them....) Now, is it possible to replace them with the newer style? or are they incompatible like the pre 1988 e30's are?

here's a pic of it i'm so excited!!!

[MR 325]

Well, most 88's still had the diving boards BUT, they have the lower rear fender arches and the bumpers are a slightly different design than the 84-87's. Pretty much what I am trying to say is YES, you can bolt on the plastic bumpers with no modification.

[BS87]

It has the lower arches so you can bolt the bumpers right on. About halfway through 88 is when they started slapping the plastic bumpers on.

[randywalters]

About halfway through 88 is when they started slapping the plastic bumpers on.

That's an old unsubstantiated rumor that's been proven false many times over the years. Not a single 88 was made with plastic bumpers; they all came with the aluminum bumpers. The plastic ones appeared on the first 89 model, but never on the 88 model.

But yes the 88 has the exact same body shell as the 89-91 so the plastic bumpers will bolt right up to the 88 as long as you have the 89-91 mounting hardware. You'll also need the 89-91 front turn signals, but the side marker lights are all the same.

[hotghias]

the 88 is i looked at had metal bumpers. the confusion may come in the car model year: the changeover of the year usually comes in august if i remember right, so plastic bumper cars were made and available in 88, just sold as 89 model years. like my 87 eta: made in late 86.

i think that's right.

[randywalters]

the 88 is i looked at had metal bumpers. the confusion may come in the car model year: the changeover of the year usually comes in august if i remember right, so plastic bumper cars were made and available in 88, just sold as 89 model years. like my 87 eta: made in late 86.

i think that's right.

Yes, the first of the new model years are built in September, so a 325is built in 8/88 would be the last of the 88 models, then the ones built in 9/88 are the first of the 89 models (which is what my first one was) and were on dealer lots by September of 88.

[daforce007]

cool! thanks for all the info yall.

[BS87]

Yes, the first of the new model years are built in September, so a 325is built in 8/88 would be the last of the 88 models, then the ones built in 9/88 are the first of the 89 models (which is what my first one was) and were on dealer lots by September of 88.

This is what i meant by my statement.

[e30 Jeremy]

Just to put it alot easier, early '88 models came with the aluminum bumpers. Later '88 models came with plastic ones.

[randywalters]

Just to put it alot easier, early '88 models came with the aluminum bumpers. Later '88 models came with plastic ones.

No they did not. No 88 came with plastic bumpers. Read my other post above. I researched this heavily before deciding on which year to look for when i was looking for my first E30 - looked at a lot of 88's and 89's before going with the 89 for it's plastic bumpers, and in the 5 years since have found no evidence that any 88 came with plastic bumpers. Read my other post above about production date differences.

[bigbore]

Never seen a 88 plastic bumper.. I dont think they exist..

[e30 Jeremy]

oh, hmm. That's weird. Everyone I know that has an e30 has told me that the late 88 came with plastic bumpers. Maybe they just meant the ones built after 9/88 because it was still 1988?

[uberpanzer]

Actualyl Jeremy I think that all of us have just been misleading you. The '88 cars can FIT the plastic bumpers, and some (like Hamik's old car) now have newer bumpers on them, but TECHNICALLY no '88 cars came with them. But they are the only year that you don't have to seriously mod anything to get them to fit right. Basically it is a common e30 misconception, and we are helping to perpetuate it!

[e30 Jeremy]

Llol thanks for clearing things up, Doug.

[uberpanzer]

That's what I'm hear for tonight....to show how stupid some of us e30 people have been over the years!

[88shortye30]

Only one of you is correct here. My father worked for BMW as a tech for 30 years. We are the original owners of a 1988 E30 325is. It's Black/Black with auto trans. He purchased it toward the end of 88. It's titled and manufactured as an 88. The car was factory built and delivered to the show room floor from which he purchased it with the plastic shorty bumpers. The car now has 167,000 miles and it's never left our site. My point is it was manufactured with plastic bumpers. The later 88's had short bumpers. E30 M3's were introduced mid to later 88 and that's when they started using plastic bumpers on all the E30's. My father was periodically sent to BMW tech school in New Jersey. So he knew of the updates. Our E30 is up for sale if anyone is interested. Does anyone know what the car should be worth?

[Stück]

Did you really bump an 11 year old thread for that incorrect post?

Late 1988 production is called a 1989.

[87Cabrio89is]

Since he has, might as well get the facts straight. What month was this '88 built and what is the VIN? VIN has model year in its code.

[franan]

How much.

Only one of you is correct here. My father worked for BMW as a tech for 30 years. We are the original owners of a 1988 E30 325is. It's Black/Black with auto trans. He purchased it toward the end of 88. It's titled and manufactured as an 88. The car was factory built and delivered to the show room floor from which he purchased it with the plastic shorty bumpers. The car now has 167,000 miles and it's never left our site. My point is it was manufactured with plastic bumpers. The later 88's had short bumpers. E30 M3's were introduced mid to later 88 and that's when they started using plastic bumpers on all the E30's. My father was periodically sent to BMW tech school in New Jersey. So he knew of the updates. Our E30 is up for sale if anyone is interested. Does anyone know what the car should be worth?

[dcmovin]

My 88 325is has plastic bumpers. I can't prove they were "bolted right on" by a previous owner, however. I have a 9/88 build date, FYI. Since spending some qt under the car, I'm going with my gut that they were factory installed.

[Stück]

9 of 88 is a 1989.

[dcmovin]

9 of 88 is a 1989.

But it's titled as an 88. Shrug.

[randywalters]

Since he has, might as well get the facts straight. What month was this '88 built and what is the VIN? VIN has model year in its code.

I was going to say the same thing - post (A) the production date from the door jamb sticker, and (B) the last seven digits of the VIN.

My 88 325is has plastic bumpers. I can't prove they were "bolted right on" by a previous owner, however. I have a 9/88 build date, FYI. Since spending some qt under the car, I'm going with my gut that they were factory installed.

My first 325is was an '89 with a build date of 9/88 on the door jamb sticker, and it had Plastic Bumpers. I bought it from the original owner (an old rich guy) and the car was all original, and he had old family pictures with the car in the backround.

Post the last seven digits of your VIN too, and double-check that build date from your door jamb sticker. Since your '88 has the same 9/88 build date of my former '89, maybe we can get to the bottom of this old argument once and for all.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that your 9/88 build date car could just be the very last of the '88 models to come off the assembly line before their EOP (End Of Production) date, but BMW's official cutoff date is August 31st. September 1st is the official start date of the new models.

Here's another data point - when my '89 325is got broadsided and totalled out, i found and bought an identical white/tan 325is to replace it but it was an '88 and it had the big aluminum bumpers. I had the two cars side by side at home transplanting my suspension and pyramid radio etc from the wrecked '89 to the new '88 and i also transplanted the Plastic bumpers from my wrecked '89 to the '88. While the bumpers were off. I noticed that the rear body shell of the '88 had a row of holes (6 maybe?) in the sheet metal in the recess behind the upper bumper area where the long upper black plastic trim cover's studs fit through the rear car body, then lays on top the metal bumper to fill the gap between bumper and body shell. The nuts holding it on are accessed from inside the trunk IIRC.

My '89 did not have these holes in the rear body shell since the plastic bumper setup doesn't have that black trim cover like the 84-88 metal bumper models do. These now-abandoned holes protruded into the trunk so leaving them open would have allowed water to get into the trunk, and i could also see them from certain angles through the upper gap when looking at the rear bumper so i covered these holes with squares of white electrical tape to hide them and keep water out.

So i think the best way to tell if a real '88 325is that for some reason has plastic bumpers actually came from the factory like that (or was upgraded to them by a previous owner) is to check the rear body shell and see if it has this row of holes or not. If the holes are there, it was originally a metal bumper car. There's no way the factory would install plastic bumpers on a body shell that has this row of open holes in the lower trunk.

_________________________

- - - Updated - - -

But it's titled as an 88. Shrug.

That's most likely a DMV error, not a true indication of your car's actual model year designation. I've had a two cars over the years where the model year on my pink slip was one year off, and i've had two other cars where the VIN numbers on the pink slip were transposed (and had to have a DMV referee authenticate the clerical error and have a corrected title issued). DMV errors are common.

Post the last seven of your VIN, and look for the presence (or absense) of the bumper trim cover holes along the trunk sheet metal and get back to us . . .

[dworthy]

If you look in realoem.com 06/88 and newer had the plastic bumpers, so actually a YM-88 could have the plastic bumpers.

The euro cars came with the plastic bumpers starting 10/87, for others whom didn't know from across the puddle.

[Cloudbase]

So here's a random thread bump.

I was researching the build month that plastic bumpers appeared on 1988 E30s and using the RealOEM as a reference it shows 6/88 as the beginning build month of plastic bumpers.

The VIN for the car I am selling is: WBAAA1309J4142342





The 10th digit of the VIN is the model year, J is 1988. So this is a 1988 model year 325iS with a build date of 6/88.

Using REALOEM this is the part number applicable to this vin:

No.	Description	Supp.	Qty	From	Up To	Part Number	Price

01

Trim panel

GRUNDIERT

1

06/1988

51111953646

$275.52

Which is a plastic bumper.

The part number for metals bumpers referencing this VIN is:

No.	Description	Supp.	Qty	From	Up To	Part Number	Price		Notes

No parts found matching your car.

So based on that, I would say that plastic bumpers started at build dates of 6/88, which would be 1988 model years.