Hood "gaps"

[dak911]

How to bring the hood down at the rear (by the windshield)
I am trying to make the gap less as the rear side of the hood, looks like there are 2 bolts that go through the bottom of the hood hinge, can I move the hood down by making an adjustment at this point?

[steve f]

The rear hole on the hinge where it bolts to the body is slotted for up and down adjustment. The holes on the hinge where it bolts to the hood are large square cut holes to allow for side to side and fore and aft adjustment.

[dak911]

Looks like you can't reach behind the bolt so I hope the "bolt" is attached somehow

[steve f]

The bolts thread into weld-in-place barrel-nuts on the body and hood.

[Z3racer701]

Be careful about moving the hood too far back. If you do, the front of the door can contact the hood as you open the door.

[amancuso]

Hi guys... The hood on my car is sitting too high. Check out the pictures:


You can see the large gap between the hood and the fender. Does anyone have a picture of the actual adjustment point where I can bring the hood to sit lower?

[Zoupe6]

The hood/bumper cover gap can be adjusted four ways: 1) Adjust the bumper cover by removing the fender liner (forward portion only) to access the plastic mounting bracket (Minimal adjustment), 2) Remove the two torx bolts that hold the front bumper on (Two holes bottom of bumper cover) and use a 14mm allen socket to ajust bumper up and down (Usually stuck, remove bumper and un-stick; you choose method), 3) Hood height stoppers (Rubber) located at 4 positions on the body portion of the car around the front and sides of the engine bay (Not on hood). Screw up and down to adjust stopping height, and 4) The spring latches that hold the hood shut can be adjusted. Both (2) are on the front of the hood itself and are adjusted by loosening the jam nut (17 mm) and turning with flat head screwdriver. Adjust inward for a tighter fit. All might need a little adjustment to get it perfect. Your lights can be moved around a little bit to adjust gaps, too. Just be sure to re-aim them.

[SloanZ]

The hood/bumper cover gap can be adjusted four ways: 1) Adjust the bumper cover by removing the fender liner (forward portion only) to access the plastic mounting bracket (Minimal adjustment), 2) Remove the two torx bolts that hold the front bumper on (Two holes bottom of bumper cover) and use a 14mm allen socket to ajust bumper up and down (Usually stuck, remove bumper and un-stick; you choose method), 3) Hood height stoppers (Rubber) located at 4 positions on the body portion of the car around the front and sides of the engine bay (Not on hood). Screw up and down to adjust stopping height, and 4) The spring latches that hold the hood shut can be adjusted. Both (2) are on the front of the hood itself and are adjusted by loosening the jam nut (17 mm) and turning with flat head screwdriver. Adjust inward for a tighter fit. All might need a little adjustment to get it perfect. Your lights can be moved around a little bit to adjust gaps, too. Just be sure to re-aim them.

My gap is similar to amancuso's above. Would you say that is more likely the bumper that needs adjusting (options 1&2) than the hood itself? The other gaps around the gills and doors look good on my car

[Mr Bingley]

Adjusting gaps is more difficult than you'd think. You need to start with something that is already correct, a point of reference, and adjust your gaps to it. It helps to have two people involved, and it's a lot of trial and error. For every gap you tighten, some other gap some other place loosens--this one gets smaller but that one gets bigger. It is actually an art, and if you look closely, more cars have bad gaps than have good (especially American cars, which come with unacceptable gaps from the factory). You could take to a good body shop and have them put it right. Was it wrecked in its past?

[Vintage42]

Adjusting gaps is more difficult than you'd think...

^^
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...16&postcount=6

[amancuso]

Wrecked no, but a minor fenderbender has taken it's toll.:


the pic in my previous post is after repair.

[wrench13]

Al when I did the hood replace myself last time, I started with the gap at the door to hood, and gap at the hood to quarter panel, since those parts re not adjestable, and worked from there. From there I ajusted the bumper to hood gaps, using the side ajusters at the outside corners of the bumper to get that gap correct, and last used the two bolts that raise lower the whole bumper to get the final gaps right. Then I adjusted the head light placement and the hood latch posts. Be careful of that headlight adjust, the tabs used to anchor the lights are fragile and crack easy. Also , if your radiator support was at all tweaked, it will make all of these adjustments much more difficult - mine was and it was the devil to get it even close to the factory gaps.

With the full replacement of all the front end components, including the rad support, lights, hood, grilles, etc, from the last hood bashing incident, the gap adjusts are much easier.

[amancuso]

Al when I did the hood replace myself last time, I started with the gap at the door to hood, and gap at the hood to quarter panel, since those parts re not adjestable, and worked from there. From there I ajusted the bumper to hood gaps, using the side ajusters at the outside corners of the bumper to get that gap correct, and last used the two bolts that raise lower the whole bumper to get the final gaps right. Then I adjusted the head light placement and the hood latch posts. Be careful of that headlight adjust, the tabs used to anchor the lights are fragile and crack easy. Also , if your radiator support was at all tweaked, it will make all of these adjustments much more difficult - mine was and it was the devil to get it even close to the factory gaps.

With the full replacement of all the front end components, including the rad support, lights, hood, grilles, etc, from the last hood bashing incident, the gap adjusts are much easier.

Thanks very much for chiming in, I was going to message you, knowing you had the same damage. The tricky thing is that the door to hood height adjustment is near perfect, yet I still have that nasty fender to hood gap. I printed out some BMW hood adjustment directions and took them to the body shop this morning. Since it's raining I told them to take the whole day if necessary to make adjustments and that I'd pick it up in the morning. I'll let everyone know how it turns out.