was at a Pull Apart last week and found a 1991 325i with pristine bumpers. Knowing my '91 318i had a crack in the rear bummper, I was excited to be able to replace it for a bargain. I took the bumper, side marker lights and all the associated hardware from each end. I didn't crawl underneath this beast and remove the bumper brackets, after all, I have a good bumper on my car, why bother?
Imagine my surprise when we tried to install it and found out that the brackets are different. Now keep in mind that they are from the same year and same model, but obviously BMW made a change during the production run and they are not interchangable. The bolt pattern is the same but the length is different, 78mm vs. 91mm so there is no way these are going to bolt together. Taking everything apart to change the brackets isn't really a good option, why run the risk of cracking a perfectly good bumper.
I'll just have to go back to the Pull Apart and hope the brackets are still on the car and swap them out. Lesson learned, either take all the pieces from the salvage yard or measure the old ones to make sure the new pieces would fit.
Big Dog
Topic: Mid year production changes are making me crazy! (Read 1986 times)