[VeroX]

Hi everyone,

I just joined forums hoping to find some help with the issue I'm having on my BMW 3 GT. Today I have noticed that my front bumper has dropped lower under the headlight, so I tried refitting it and when I loosened it up I noticed that a plastic ledge under the headlight is broken. I am having problem trying to find this part online and it's not part of bumper bracket kits that I found for sale, perhaps part of headlight bracket? I'm hoping someone is familiar with this and can help me. I would like to be prepared with spare parts already before taking it all apart.
I attached some pictures to help you understand better which part I'm on about.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Billfitz]

Look it up at realoem.com

[VeroX]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

Look it up at realoem.com

Thanks a lot for the link, its a great webiste that I wasn't aware of. I found the diagram and the part is there but number is a bit faded and isn't listed below where the parts list is...
It's nr 14 in the diagram.

[Oksamit78]

Seems as it is a part of the headlight housing assembly (removable). You might have to take it all apart, dismantle the headlight and then attempt to repair the bracket. You might have to go to your local BMW dealer to, at least, find out if the bracket is available separate or not. They might share the part number if they have it in the system.

Hum... I've looked around a little bit more. Hate to bring this to you, but you might be in more trouble than you think. Hear me out... On the image you have posted above you can clearly see a star shaped (Y shaped) cut-outs in the bracket... So, take a look at this picture of F34 headlight:


Red arrows are the Y shaped guides that stick forward and come through the bracket. There are some kind of Y shaped locks on them (to prevent the bracket from coming forward and off the guides?), in other words, the black bracket that you think is broken slides onto those guides in the direction towards the back of the car and then gets locked in place. Blue arrows show where are the the sliding locks are at the headlight housing bottom.

And here are not so good news... These Y shaped guides are part of the headlight lens itself and if you are having the most outside corner of the black bracket floating up and down in vertical direction, this means that the Y guide could be broken off the lens. In this case you have 2 options: replace the whole headlight or replace the lens alone.

Here is how the Y guides look (3x) at the bottom of the lens:





Again, I think you have to disassemble the front by removing the bumper cover and carefully examine the headlight housing/bracket first. I hope I am wrong and all it is - the black bracket just slid forward and off the guide...

Also, you have to be careful with selection of replacement lens, there are differences between halogen/xenon/LED lenses (preLCI and LCI).

PreLCI lens:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175657229519...3ABFBM5Or40-1h

And here is the link for LCI lens, but it has C shaped guides instead of Y shaped:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175664599098...3ABFBM5Or40-1h

Carefully inspect your headlight and pick the matching lens if you have to replace.
Good luck.

[VeroX]

This is huge help, thank you so much for your time and effort putting such a good post together and explaining it all to me. I will take it all apart and see exactly where and what is broken, I may end up buying a second hand headlight take the bracket off and sell whats left to minimise the cost.

[Oksamit78]

Originally Posted by VeroX

This is huge help, thank you so much for your time and effort putting such a good post together and explaining it all to me. I will take it all apart and see exactly where and what is broken, I may end up buying a second hand headlight take the bracket off and sell whats left to minimise the cost.

Do share your findings. I am interested to know what was causing the bracket to deflect.

[Oksamit78]

VeroX Did you get this resolved? What was the culprit?