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      08-20-2011, 08:12 AM   #1
bardofoc
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Drives: 2011 128i
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Orange, CA

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Hit & Run ding.

While washing my 128i yesterday afternoon, I noticed an aberration on my rear bumper. In the right hand corner, there appeared to be a bulge protruding out from an otherwise smooth and undamaged finish. I was surprised by this anomaly’s sudden appearance. I initially thought someone had dinged my bumper, but that scenario didn’t seem right. Like I said, the damage is in the form of a bump or a ‘bubble’ that had been caused by an impact inside the bumper. If this had been caused by a collision between my car and another object, one would expect to see an indentation in the bumper and not a rise. I was then certain this had been caused by a malfunction or a defect within the car. But, now, I am not so sure either way. There are three reasons why I am not convinced this was the result of a collision.
1) A lack of indentation at the point of impact
2) Other than a slight crease around the bubble, there are no cracks, holes, scratches, or scrape marks
on the bumper
3) Just as important, there are no paint marks that rubbed off from the car that collided with mine.

The damage on my car is very minimal. If I was rear ended or backed into something, the impact must have been at 0 MPH. I searched the Internet to see if there were any complaints about BMW bumpers. I located threads on two other forums. One was about defective X5 bumpers. Quite a few users at that site complained about a wrinkling effect on the top of the rear bumper caused by the bumper popping out of the clips. But, that seemed to be related to the vehicle’s tailgate. The other thread had a scenario much more similar to mine. The owner of a 2008 3-Series complained that something similar to the shape of a nail head was pushing out from his rear bumper. He thought that was strange since his car had obviously not experienced a collision. It turned out that a plastic rivet got loose and fell down inside the bumper. In both cases, the owners were immediately told by the dealerships that their cars had been rear ended, so no repair work would be done for them. In the case of the 3-Series owner, after it was determined that the problem was due to a factory defect, he was told that he would not be given a loaner since the repair was for body work and not mechanical.

My 2011 128i is a little over 6 months old. If the protrusion I write about occurred because of something that happened to my car, I can live with that. However, if this is a result of a factory defect, I believe BMW SHOULD repair my bumper. But what I find more pressing is that if this cause was not a single incident, then my bumper may continue to deteriorate. A lot of the X5 owners stated that the bulk of the repair cost was attributed to reattaching the bumpers after they came loose once the wrinkling began. It is still too dark outside to take a picture of my bumper, but I will post an image later today. I would still like to hear feedback from other members in the meantime. I am going to take my car into the dealership next week regardless. I just have a feeling that I am going to end up knee-deep in a fight with the dealership, so I want as much of an advantage as I can get.
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Last edited by bardofoc; 08-23-2011 at 06:15 AM.. Reason: Adding images
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