Earlier this month I stupidly pulled the front bumper cover off my 2006 M3. It took the better part of the month to repair.
The delay was caused by travel, some miscommunication with the repair shop, the holidays and parts availability. Nothing is ever simple with BMWs so I was expecting some complications and was planning to stay involved in the repair process. The big surprise, however, was discovering there were some connections that somehow my internal bumper was missing.
About five years ago I was involved in a fender bender that required both the outside bumper cover and the inner front bumper repaired with original BMW parts. The repair looked good and I was satisfied. But somehow the inner bumper was installed without four connector rods that hook into rubber receptacles in the outer bumper cover.
Initially it was hard to understand this from the shop, Val Collision Center. It was not a place that specialized in BMWs but it was located on Rt. 1 only a few miles from my house. So it was easy to stop by and talk in person. This proved important because the shop wasn’t good at identifying exactly what parts were required, and how to get them if the local dealer did not have them in stock.
Eventually I understood what the shop was saying regarding the connectors being missing. I appreciated them telling me rather than just doing an incomplete job like the last time. But it was up to me to identify the parts required. I worked off this diagram from online source realoem:
And I found this image online that showed the connectors:
All my internal bumper had was four small rectangular holes:
As you can see above diagrams from realoem are great resources but they don’t show exactly what parts connect where. After some deciphering I saw I needed not just the connectors but something for them to fasten onto. That turned out to be part #16, called prestol cages. They are part # 07129901748 for any M3 owner reading this post. I needed four of them for each connector opening, the connectors being part #51117894986.
Next the challenge was finding these parts. BMW dealers mostly stock parts for newer cars and like other makers BMW is having supply chain issues. The only company that had any connectors was ECS Tuning, and they only had two. Then I reached out to Evan Winstead, who with his partner Jason Reighard has made getbmwparts.com the go-to place for original BMW parts. They had the 4 prestol cages but not the two connectors.
Evan really came through. I ordered on a Thursday and had the parts by Wednesday, when initially the estimate was 10 business days:
“We’re planning to ship all at once – within the next day or 2 if all goes to plan. I’ve requested the connectors be added to our shop’s overnights from BMW to speed things up for you! If that can’t be done, I’ve instructed our team to partial ship the in stocks and then those connectors when they do arrive.“
Finally ready to reinstall bumper cover
Cages in the openings
Inside of bumper cover where connectors insert
I inserted the prestol cages into the holes and screwed in the connectors. Then I just needed to bring the car back to the shop. Since it was close by I had been keeping the M3 in our garage while the shop held onto the repainted bumper cover. They got the car right in and put the bumper back on properly, with even bumper gaps and fender lines. I was able to drive the car to a NCC DIY event in Annapolis and give the M3 an overdue brake fluid change.
Catch can for brake fluid
So all’s well that ends well but I wish this repair was more straightforward. If I hadn’t pulled the bumper off I never would have known about the missing connectors. Looking back on how easily the bumper cover seemed to come off it makes sense that the missing connectors contributed. The fact that the cover “popped” off rather than broke saved me a lot of $$ over having to buy another one.
So another year of enthusiast ownership draws to a close. We’ll see what maintenance and repair activities 2022 will bring. Merry New Year!