[daveman]

I'm looking for a 335i and found one that looks promising, but in the pics the hood doesn't look aligned properly, like the hood sits too low. Is this something easily remedied?

[project6]

Yes.

[daveman]

Thanks! What's up and how is it fixed?

[Turb0Surge]

If it's just the hood, there are two knobs (stoppers) on your hood. unscrew them a lil and they will come out more and stop the hood from going so low. Might be your bumper is pushed in too much...

[VMRWheels]

Easily fixable. Like turbosurge said, just spin up the bump stops for your hood. Depending on that car you have, modern cars should have something very similar.

[AddictedToBavarian]

It took me a long time, to get it sort of right. Apparently, E9Xs have this issue.

[daveman]

Thanks a lot. I emailed the dealer and he's fixing it up and will send me some more pics.

Appreciate it!

[gatoman39]

Make sure it wasn't in an accident first. DOn't rely on a CarFax take the car in to an INDY for a PPI.

[MWhy]

Another thing to be aware of is the fenders are made of plastic while the hood is metal. They react to heat differently an expand at different rates. So on a hot car, there is sometimes a misalignment where they meet. Goes away after body cools. At least that how my e92 is.

[Three_thirty_I]

I reckon as said it's just the adjusting rubber stops that are too low. Takes a few seconds to unscrew a bit until the right height is achieved so that the bonnet is flush with the fenders. Boot also has this adjustment...

[AndreyT]

The misalignment you observe is often a consequence of an attempt to fix another "misalignment": the hood gap, i.e. the vertical gap between the front edge of the hood and the bumper in the kidney area. On some cars that gap tends to grow disproportionally large, which people "fix" by dropping the hood (screwing in the hood stops). This popular "fix" expectedly leads to loss of alignment between the hood and the fenders.

So, in cases like that one has to choose what one cares about more: the hood gap or the fender alignment. Usually one has to seek a satisfactory compromise between the two. In your pictures it looks like someone hated their hood gap so much, that they were willing to completely ruin the fender alignment to get rid of it.

Judging by the pictures, the "easy fixes" suggested to you in the posts above (screwing out the hood stops) will introduce a large hood gap in front, i.e. they will ruin more than they will fix. Assuming the fender are OK, the root of the issue would probably be a sagging bumper cover.

[Three_thirty_I]

But doesn't the bonnet latches grip at the same general height, so adjusting the outer rubber stops only affects the bonnet to fender height?!

[AddictedToBavarian]

I had the gap and fixed that, but now after a drive my hood will be more to the right fender than to the left or vise versa. When I open and close the hood its ok, but it happens after i drive. So weird. It seems impossible to remedy this 100%. I've spent a long time on it.

[David1]

Some are worse than others and that's a bad one. I have had 2 e92's so far and each has been different. My current car I have perfect after hours of work. and setting the fenders correctly where they attach.

[AndreyT]

Originally Posted by Three_thirty_I

But doesn't the bonnet latches grip at the same general height, so adjusting the outer rubber stops only affects the bonnet to fender height?!

You are absolutely right.

It is impossible to rise the bonnet by merely unscrewing the rubber stops, since the latches won't allow it. The only thing one will achieve by doing that is that it will become harder to close the bonnet. But it will not change its position. In order for it to rise, the "eyelets" on the inner side of the bonnet have to be unscrewed by the same amount as well.

However, if the bonnet was dropped by the previous owner by simply screwing in the rubber stops (without screwing in the "eyelets" to compensate), then it might work. It will simply return to its original position.

As a side note, whenever one adjusts the bonnet height, one has to adjust both the rubber stops and the "eyelets" simultaneously by the same amount. Those who adjust the rubber stops only are doing another bit of "ghetto tuning", potentially leading to either damaged or stupid-looking vehicle.

If the previous owner really did something like that, it is pretty easy to test for. Just walk up to the vehicle, grab the front edge of the bonnet and try to lift it (without unlatching the bonnet). If it lifts a little when you pull it up, that would immediately indicate that the previous owner screwed in the rubber stops without compensating with "eyelets". Just unscrew the rubber stops back to their original position. But if the bonnet is solid, i.e. it doesn't move up when you pull it up, then it means that the previous owner did it right: he adjusted the "eyelets" as well. In that case you'll have to readjust both the stops and the "eyelets".

[project6]

Originally Posted by AddictedToBavarian

I had the gap and fixed that, but now after a drive my hood will be more to the right fender than to the left or vise versa. When I open and close the hood its ok, but it happens after i drive. So weird. It seems impossible to remedy this 100%. I've spent a long time on it.

Chassis or body flex will do that. Get a tower strut brace and you will see that problem minimized...but if you already have one...

[AddictedToBavarian]

Originally Posted by project6

Chassis or body flex will do that. Get a tower strut brace and you will see that problem minimized...but if you already have one...

You've heard of this? No, I don't have one.

[project6]

Originally Posted by AddictedToBavarian

You've heard of this? No, I don't have one.

I've seen it happen on 2 occasions after an autocross event. Cars with CF hoods. Full disclosure (it was a demo of guys selling strut tower braces from Neuspeed or Turner motorsport)...the CF hoods and were attached at the event and were probably not properly torqued down (I'm thinking to enhance the awesome factor of the product). Flex was so bad, it rubbed resin off the hood edges. They installed tower brace and did another run and the supposed flex was minimized and the rubbing misaligned hood was eliminated. Of course, the almost half a second better time at the run was the kicker.

This demo was to sell a product, so take it with a grain of salt.

[MrDummy]

I have a 2010 328i bimmer and the hood gap is aligned with the 2 fenders ok, but my gap is 5mm's measuring at 3 locations, right in the middle and on each side on inner edge of light housing.

Is this normal? I can push down each side of the hood a little bit and wanted to make sure that the gap between bumper and hood lip is not to large of an opening at 5mm's? And should I adjust the rubber bumper stops to keep hood from moving when pushing it down?

Thanks for any help or comments so I know this is normal.

[theblackmamba]

get a vehicle history report first...pm me I do them!

[MrDummy]

I got one when I boughty ride...

[bumere90]

no biggie
sometimes it is not even adjustable
audi's have the same thing going on