After a post-wash drying of the hood/engine area, I closed the hood and noticed, to my horror, that one side of the hood closes slightly higher than the other. Right side is half an inch above the front bumper, left side is maybe 5mm lower. (Mixing metric and imperial units to keep you on your toes.)

At first I worried that I had goofed up closing the hood, so just to be safe I closed it several more times, with various amounts of gusto, using carefully measured amounts of cursing. Closed the same every time. Then I looked at some old pictures of the car and realized that it had always been like this, I simply never noticed.

Has anyone dealt with this? It is someone the dealer can adjust under warranty? Ideally with no serious car surgery? I am hoping there's a rubber stop or hydraulic thingy they can easily fiddle with to move the one side down a few mm. Thanks!

 

It's because with these cars no 2 hoods are the same.

 

Personal experience, sort of related: be aware when closing the hood that the little black tube for your windshield washer doesn't get pinched in the hood seam. It happened to me and I had no washer fluid when I needed it most.

 

I think you adjust the bumper to mate with the bonnet. According to the TIS CD, this is the right way to do it. Seems like it'd be a pain though.

Rawhyde

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. I was horrified (to borrow your term) to see the uneven closure when it happened to me.

My solution:
I put both hands evenly spaced and centered on the bonnet and apply as much equal pressure on each hand when closing; and then I close it hard with some gusto. The KEY skill for me is applying even pressure across on both hands. It's a pain to apply this much attention to closing my hood, but if I don't I'll get uneven results.

Before I was just closing with one hand which was off center.

If someone has another fix for this, I'd love to know.

 

Actually, it's fairly easy to do. Unfortunately though, it's cold and dark outside now, so I can't go and walk myself through the process to remind myself exactly how to do it.

But I remember correctly ,if it was only one side, it was just a matter of loosening up one bolt and pulling up on the bumper until a friend says that it's perfectly straight. Then have said friend hold the bumper in place, re-tighten the bolt, and you're good to go! The whole process should be 5-10 minutes.

The hardest part of doing it was trying to locate the correct bolt in the first place! T2Nav, when it's light out, I can go and take a picture of the bolt location if you want.


-Paul!

 

Rawhyde and Paul!, I'll follow up on your suggestions. This will be a fix for me. Thanks for posting t2Nav; I thought the problem was just me.

Pics would also be a great help.

 

Here's another bit of free advice....worth every penny!

Take it easy closing the bonnet if you have Xenon headlights. The gears that do the self leveling are fragile. I gently lower my bonnet then I use cupped hands and press down over each headlight until it clicks closed.

 

Thanks everyone for the inputs. Paul, if you could post a picture of the bolt location, that would be fantastic. I will save it and raise the big-gap end of the bumper as soon as the weather warms up a bit.

 

Oh crap. Sorry! Forgot all about this. I'll try and have it done tomorrow!


-Paul!

 

to busy buying new hat today huh? that hat that just so happens to match your new 06' JCW

 

I got my MCSa yesterday, a 2006, just experienced the same problem with the hood. Closing the hood firmly while applying even pressure laterally just inside of the headlights did the trick. Thanks!

 

Howdy:

Just when I thought I was the only person seeing this issue. My driver side is about 4mm (gap between bumper and bonnet) higher than the passenger side when closed. Also, the plastic trimming on both sides are off as well. Just like RawHyde said, I initially had concern on slamming the hood with Xenon. On my other non-MINI cars, I always lower the hood to the latch, then press gently, but firmly to shut it. The first time shutting the MINI's bonnet, my wife ended up driving a few miles with the driver side still not closed completely.

I then became paranoid, worrying the bonnet was screwed up because it was bent unevenly for few days. Could this be possible? Could my now uneven closure of the bonnet is a direct result of me not shutting it properly? If so, will the Xenon auto-level self adjusts to compensate the height difference? Other than adjusting the bumper, is there any bump stop to adjust?

Thanks so much for helping my an@l concerns.

 

last summer I had my hood replaced by a body shop. I am having the same type of alignment issues. My body guy says ther is no alignment for the hood...Could someone here tell me otherwise?

Thanks

 

The latches themselves can be loostened and adjusted to make the hood match up. If you are so inclined, you could adjust the bumper instead, but both do about the same. My car was in a few accidents and the bumper is adjusted to the max and the panels dont line up anymore. My hood is still sort of bent, I need to adjust the hood latches to get that little gap back.

 

Can anyone take a picture or explain what bolt(s) to loosen in order to align the front bumper? My gap is bigger on my drivers side and his been like that since I got the MCS.

 

Looking at the Bentley manual, it says you can adjust the hood alignment 2 ways. Bumper alignment is also possible as previously mentioned.

The 2 bolts attaching the hood to each arm coming out of the car aligns the cowl to hood....4mm +/- cowl to hood distance. Loosen them just enough to be able to nudge the hood back and forward. The 2 bolts holding each hood latch (near radiator) can be loosened just enough for up and down nudging....6mm +/- hood lip to bumper.
Also, align the catch bar to center the hood latch opening upon contact.

 

I've got the aero kit and the outside edges with the arch's on them have significantly more gap then the center of the hood. I've got the two adjuster screws cranked up as high as they can go (the ones that are accessible from the wheel wells) and I still have more gap then i would like.

I think I'll be pealing off the front bumper cover and dremeling out those elyptical adjustment holes a bit so I can crank it up a bit more. I'll post pics of the adjustment screws and my small mods to it when i get it done.

 

The dealer will make adjustments under warranty. Also, the adjusters for the xenons are not that fragile. I wouldn't drop the hood from full open, but dropping it from 10" or less is not going to hurt anything and will ensure a full latch-down, which a push on the closed hood may not, even if you hear a click.