I've noticed that the front and rear bars on my ride, don't seem to have a uniform clearance to there adjacent guards. I've always assumed this was due to damage and repairs by previous owners. Although it has always annoyed me I thought it may be time to put the question out there. Is there any alignment adjustment in the bar mountings?

 

If down under, bar=bumpers and guards=wings=fenders, then yes!

The threaded nut, that bolts #3 go into, on bracket #1, can rotate and adjust up and down. When the bumper slides on, its height and therefore the gap is dictated by those two adjustable nuts on bracket #1.

The plastic side brackets #17 are somewhat less adjustable, but they can be shimmed a bit if need be. Those brackets dictate the alignment of the side of the bumper to the fenders. The assembly slides right off of them.

A 17mm socket will remove the two bolts #3 and that's all that holds the assembly on. But be sure to disconnect all the lights/wiring harnesses that are attached. Also you will have to undo at least 2 of the corner pegs at the undertray to fender liner connection, part #13.

FYI bumper bar #9 will remain in the bumper cover during slide-off and that's ok. Same setup for the rear bumper too.

 

There is something about the common corrosion of the fittings that may effect the mounting position in how it sits . Haven't seen it myself just a heads up as there are other post on this topic .

 

G’day Mikey,

If your bumpers have sagged it’s more than likely that the bumper mounts have corroded away to dust and the bumpers have fallen, lucky they haven’t fallen off in fact.

A brilliant piece of Jaguar engineering has a steel bolt pass through a diecast alloy fitting into a captive brass nut in the bumper beam all in an area that in wet conditions gets a good soaking. The perfect setup for dissimilar metal corrosion.

The front and rear bumpers are supported in an identical manner.

I see that you are in Melbourne so corrosion may not be that much of an issue for you. No salty roads to contend with in winter.

Each bumper is secured by two of the aforementioned steel bolts which screw into the captive brass nut in the bumper beam. If they are corroded onto the bolts then you will have trouble removing the bumpers. The rear mounts themselves can be unbolted from the body of the car but I don’t know about the front bumper.

Some pix below may help.



Cheers and good luck and get back to me if you have any queries,
Jeff.

 

Thanks, Jeff and Richard, That was exactly the kind of info I was after. I can confirm that the front mounts can be unbolted the same as pictured above with the rear. I made note of this last weekend while I had the front grill and head lights out to upgrade to a set from an X308. I sheepishly hoped that there may have been the adjustment I was after in the four bolts attaching the mounts to the chassis. It took me about five min to realise this wasn't the case and lead me to make the inquiry here. Time allowing I'm feeling confident I can get the alignment sorted with the information you have offered.

 

G'day Mikey,

A bit more info for you.

If your bumper mounts are in good condition then there is an adjustment mechanism in the mount.

The diecast alloy support fitting consist of two parts, one of which is threaded into the other and with any luck will turn.

With the steel bolts removed you can turn the inner part of the support to raise or lower the bumper.

When I serviced my rear bumper all the metal fittings were badly corroded and all the pop rivets which held various brackets etc together were also badly corroded and quite a few of the rivets were missing, corroded away. When I put it all back together I used liberal amounts of a waxy underbody rust inhibiting sealer on everything and copperslip grease on the bolts.

Cheers,
Jeff.