M5/540i MSport front bumper cover replacement.

[cpf9]

I took the plunge and bought an aftermarket front bumper from the eBay seller in Latvia that I mentioned earlier. With washer holes, without PDC, with fogs and mesh, pre-painted in black for $364 shipped.

It won't arrive for a couple of weeks but once it does I will be sure to report back with some pics. And if I'm happy with the quality once it arrives, I may go ahead and order the rear bumper from the same seller as well.

[gsxrken]

That’s hard to not try at that price, painted!
If you do the rear bumper and like it, please reply to this thread so I get a notification.
Does the 530 also have the single exhaust cutout on the drivers side like my 2003 540 M-technic one does?

[cpf9]

Will do!

Yes, I believe the 530 just has one single exhaust on the driver's side. But the muffler tip points down to the ground and is concealed by the stock bumper. If I do go ahead with the rear m-tech, I believe I will have to buy an aftermarket exhaust tip that fits the cutout in order to avoid the rear of the car looking weird. I have my eye on the MagnaFlow 14815 muffler for this purpose.

[umnitza]

This is all very interesting.

Good luck to you if you can afford $600, but to be honest that strikes me as a lot to pay for the convenience of having it pre-painted and delivered and yet it's still aftermarket and not guaranteed to fit 100%.

There is a seller on ebay based in Lithuania called protuninglv. They have a listing for an aftermarket front bumper which they claim is ABS and includes the fog lights. What's interesting is that they allow you to select with or without PDC holes, with or without the hole for the washers, pre-painted, all for $364 shipped to the US. Seems like a much better deal than Umnitza if it's legit.

Anyone bought from them before?

Edit: oops Latvia not Lithuania

You used the correct word "seems". Hopefully this math below will help you determine if you received a good deal or not.
If you factor how eBay takes 10% of the purchase for any sale, the actual price the vendor gets is $327.60
It costs a minimum of $130-150 to ship DHL or TNT from Latvia/EU. So the bumper is $170-190 roughly. Take away the fogs ($40), and the bumper is now $130-150.
ABS bumpers for $130, that does in fact seem a little too low. Not saying they didn't buy 1000 of these and get an unbelievable deal on the back end, but it seems a bit too low.

Also, unless you are painting it yourself - which will save you a great deal of cash of course - most shops will charge $300-350 for the same quality paint we use (PPG).

It's why so many people choose to have our bumpers shipped to them pre-painted.
We're not perfect when we prepaint in every case, but we do our best. Including getting your tow holder for better matching on more difficult colors like for example SGM, or BSM, or more exotic metallics that BMW uses.

Thanks for reading.
If anyone has further questions, please feel free to email or call us.

Just a heads up, the factory cover is not ABS, its a special plastic blend. i forget the actual material atm, but its a combo of plastics to give special properties. All the aftermarket covers are ABS or Poly. None are made of the factory blend AFAIK. The issue with the aftermarket covers is they make the mold from a factory cover, then injection mold new ones with that mold. During cooling of the freshly molded cover, the plastic will shrink a bit. This is a normal issue with plastics molding. Poly shrinks more than ABS, so the fit is worse. The ABS ones fit decently good from what I've read on here, but are a bit more brittle and can crack easier if you hit something. The factory material is tougher, so it resists cracking better. What they need is to to make a slightly oversize mold, so the new cover shrinks down to the perfect size, but the cost of that is crazy prohibitive. Some adjust the front bumper mounts to move the slightly smaller poly cover backwards, so they line up at the fender arch better. The ABS one should fit without that mod.

Very well stated.
Some additions, factory is is a polyurethane blend I believe, and it's marginally thicker than the aftermarket.
PP bumpers come from Taiwan and China (garbage quality)
ABS bumpers are exclusively made in Taiwan, though it wouldn't be surprising if PP or recycled combination plastics were made in China and sold as ABS.

We only buy the bumpers from Taiwan due to their superior material quality. PP bumpers definitely do not fit as well as the ABS but they are more resistant to cracking.

[slowthirtynine]

With shipping, paint and upgraded to stock ABS, the total cost is just over $600. They said it won't ship for a couple weeks because they want the paint to be dry before they box it up.
I decided it was worth having it shipped painted. I don't much feel like running around finding a shop to paint it after I get it. It will arrive at the house, I'll install it myself and "bam!", it's done.
Also, the upgraded to ABS plastic is supposed to be a 100% perfect fit.
I'll post updates.

Hey any updates on that bumper? Did it fit perfectly on the wheel arch? Because Im looking to buy one too. If not Ill go with OEM its 1k but bmw said itll take 2 days to arrive which is really nice.

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[Santaclaus4]

It arrived at my door a week ago (it took a month from order to arrival with a final cost of $633). All I've done so far is unbox it. It has minor shipping damage but not enough to complain about. One of the little "nubs" that attach the center grille is broken but the rest of them are undamaged and should hold the grill in place just fine. The paint looks really good. They cut out the headlight washer holes for me and they ummm... don't look too pretty. I'll take some pictures and post them. I was gonna update this thread when I install it this weekend.
When I get the old (stock) cover off, I'll compare them along with taking pictures and notes of the differences. I'm interested in seeing how much they weigh. The new one is very light and kinda flimsy. I'm sure that will change when it's properly mounted.

[slowthirtynine]

Cant wait to see that update, I have a replica on because the old OEMs bracket attached to the bumper is a bit loose thus making a gap between the upper fender and the bumper. Anyway the replica as everyone mentioned is short on sides(wheel arch). So seeing your photo update will help me decide between OEM or aftermarket.

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[Santaclaus4]

Quick update. I installed the new bumper cover yesterday. I took pictures but I'll have to upload them later. The new ABS cover fits kinda OK but not nearly as good as I was led to believe. I am very happy with the paint. It matches quite well with my origonal paint.
I am not happy with the precut headlight washer holes. They are an abomination. I couldn't hide the cutouts when I installed the headlight washer nozzles. I have pictures of that too. I'm unhappy enough with the washer cutouts that I'll eventually replace the bumper cover again unless I can find a way to hide the gap and still make it look good. I assumed they had a template for cutting them out when I inquired about it. Nah, looks like they hired an 8year old and handed him a dremel tool.
If you buy the ABS cover, don't have the headlight washer holes cut out.
I'll load the pictures tomorrow.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Awww crap, what a bunch of idiots. This was from..... Ummmmmnitza?

Get a good machineshop to mill you out two 2mm thick templates, I would use black Delrin, nice and strong, the shape of the washer nozzles, round off the upper edge of the pieces, make them large enough to cover up the Umnitza kiddie Dremel cutouts, then do a proper cutout for the washer nozzles to clip onto.might have to file down the tabs to make up for the 2mm plates. Send them the bill.

[slowthirtynine]

Quick update. I installed the new bumper cover yesterday. I took pictures but I'll have to upload them later. The new ABS cover fits kinda OK but not nearly as good as I was led to believe. I am very happy with the paint. It matches quite well with my origonal paint.
I am not happy with the precut headlight washer holes. They are an abomination. I couldn't hide the cutouts when I installed the headlight washer nozzles. I have pictures of that too. I'm unhappy enough with the washer cutouts that I'll eventually replace the bumper cover again unless I can find a way to hide the gap and still make it look good. I assumed they had a template for cutting them out when I inquired about it. Nah, looks like they hired an 8year old and handed him a dremel tool.
If you buy the ABS cover, don't have the headlight washer holes cut out.
I'll load the pictures tomorrow.

oh man, I assume there is still a small gap between fender and bumper on the sides(wheel arch). Im going with OEM with this being said..

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[Santaclaus4]

Yea, small gap, and yes Umnitza. I want to contact them first, before I whine too much about it. It's not fair to bash them without first letting them know and seeing the response. Anyway, gotta head to work. Post pictures tomorrow.

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Awww crap, what a bunch of idiots. This was from..... Ummmmmnitza?

Get a good machineshop to mill you out two 2mm thick templates, I would use black Delrin, nice and strong, the shape of the washer nozzles, round off the upper edge of the pieces, make them large enough to cover up the Umnitza kiddie Dremel cutouts, then do a proper cutout for the washer nozzles to clip onto.might have to file down the tabs to make up for the 2mm plates. Send them the bill.

Are you thinking to go over the holes they cut out to hide it? That might work but those "in the know" will Know.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yep, it’s either that, or living with the visible kiddie cutouts, or OompaLoompaNitza manning up to their ridiculously bad workmanship. And sending you another one.

[Santaclaus4]

How it shipped.
20190304_145155.jpg

Headlight washer cutouts.
20190315_153642.jpg
20190315_153715.jpg

Broken nipple
20190315_153738.jpg

Paint
20190315_153844.jpg

- - - Updated - - -


Attachment 647740

How the washer cutouts looked after the aluminum support was installed.

Attachment 647741Attachment 647742Attachment 647743Attachment 647744

[Santaclaus4]

Left side.
20190316_174058.jpg20190316_174134.jpg

Right side.

20190316_174154.jpg20190316_174210.jpg

[cpf9]

They should give you a refund. For $600 that's a disgrace.

[Santaclaus4]

After the aluminum support was installed.
20190316_134512.jpg20190316_134718.jpg20190316_145318.jpg20190316_150710.jpg

[MotorMouth93]

That is way worse than I imagined when you said the cutouts were bad, looks like they used a sawzall one handed and eyeballed it.

[Santaclaus4]

This is a direct quote from the Umnitza website:

E39 Bumpers are now available in PP or ABS fitment. ABS Bumpers are Primer Gray (bumpers not primered) higher end bumper and better fitting but more fragile. The current low priced bumpers made of PolyPropylene are a great fit but are 99%, the ABS bumpers are 100% fit. One is the value bumper line and works in 99% cases, the other is ABS which works 100% of the time.

I'm not sure about you but in my opinion, 100% means it's identical or at least indistinguishable.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm less concerned with price and more concerned with convenience. The only reason I went with aftermarket was because they said "100%" and they would paint to match. If they said it was closer to 90%, I wouldn't complain (about the fit). No matter what, the cutouts are just horrendous.

[cpf9]

BTW I'm still waiting for my aftermarket, painted bumper from Latvia. It looks like it got stuck in customs. The seller has been responsive and helpful. Once it arrives I will take pics so you can compare to your Umnitza bumper.

[Santaclaus4]

I'm interested to see what you end up with.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Holy crap! Just saw your pics. That is way worse than I imagined, last night!!!

[robrods]

SantaClaus4: Thank you for the post and followup. I am sorry I am learning through your wallet, but I am in the same position. I have a REAL '03 M-Sport and want to keep it looking great... a stupid high curb decided otherwise. Your post made up my mind to go OEM and if going that route, I might as well have the paint shop fix the rock chips in the hood at the same time. Yes, it will be $$$, but it only has 120K miles and other than that, doesn't have a door ding on it. Worth it to me and as someone said, cheaper than a car payment (ok, a couple in my case). Thanks for sharing, wish the story had a happier ending.

[Asbradley21]

Wow that's not just bad that's a disgrace. Definitely not what I would be happy with for that much money.

[slowthirtynine]

Left side.
20190316_174058.jpg20190316_174134.jpg

Right side.

20190316_174154.jpg20190316_174210.jpg

Oh no that is not 100% as their site stated. This is why I dont trust vendor site pictures they are not all accurate to what they state. and those gap are pretty much close or the same to my replica PP bumper I bought in Ebay last year to replace the broken OEMs. Anyway hopefully the vendor refunds the $ because thats just frustrating, expecting that it supposed to be 100% but it isn't. Btw your here in the PNW, bmw seattle qouted me the M5 bumper without head wash/park asst. for about $1,030(forgot the exact amount but its close to) will be special orderee and arrives in 2 days. I know a body shop that can do a paint for around $200

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[dannyzabolotny]

It's kind of a bold claim to say that a replica M5 bumper fits 100%, because I've never seen one fit perfectly, ever. They should just remove that claim from their site and just say the fit is "good enough."