# Bonnet gap adjustment



## bac (Jan 31, 2020)

My apologies if this has been covered off already, but I couldn't find a good match for my particular situation with the search function.

The bonnet to bumper, bonnet to headlights and bonnet to tops of the front guards gaps on my MY2010 RS are all outside spec (too big). There is no sign of the car ever having been in an accident, but the bonnet may have been removed and refitted at some stage, possibly when the clutch was replaced.

So far I have tightened both adjustable rubber stops on the underside of the bonnet to their minimum heights and checked the adjustment of the front bonnet latch, which seems to already be at the bottom of its travel. If I close the bonnet and push down on the front, it is happy to move down a few millimetres without much pressure, maybe even enough to get the gaps back to an acceptable level.

I don't think the bumper is misaligned due to the fact there are also out of spec gaps to the guards as well and the bottom front edge of the bonnet sits higher than the bottom of the headlights by quite a margin.

I know what I want to achieve (get the bonnet to latch closed 3-4mm lower at the front edge than it is now), but not sure how to go about getting there. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated!


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## ab54666 (Nov 18, 2019)

I've not tried, but the latch looks to be held by two bolts, so you could potentially move the latch down?

https://audi.7zap.com/ImgsWatermark/ima ... 823000.png


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## bac (Jan 31, 2020)

ab54666 said:


> I've not tried, but the latch looks to be held by two bolts, so you could potentially move the latch down?


Thanks, have tried loosening those bolts and that did free the latch to move but it already seems to be at the bottom of its adjustment range.

What has me baffled is how it can be so far out of spec (approx. 8mm gap at the front when it's supposed to be around 4mm) with the latch bottomed out when there's no sign of any previous accident damage.


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## Roller Skate (May 18, 2015)




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## bac (Jan 31, 2020)

Roller Skate said:


> https://youtu.be/SHlHoePybGc


All those guys seemed to do was play with the bonnet to hinge bolts which adjust forward/back and left/right alignment, not sure how it will help with up/down at the front?


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## Roller Skate (May 18, 2015)

bac said:


> Roller Skate said:
> 
> 
> > https://youtu.be/SHlHoePybGc
> ...


Because those bolts lock the final position. You're not aligning something somewhere. Either your front bumper is misaligned or your bonnet is. Seeing as It's probably not your bonnet shrinking 4mm it's an alignment issue, obviously your bonnet needs pulling forward. It's trial and error. I fitted a carbon fibre one to mine once, took me ages to get it to line up ... then I had to go through the whole process again because I didn't like the look of it.


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## repsol (May 1, 2015)

Had similar problems with mine after garage that fitted new engine, had to take it to Audi. Turned out the front bumper wasn't fitted back on right, it was pointing downward and too far forward. You need to start with the bonnet to wing and door gap's first as a reference starting point.


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## bac (Jan 31, 2020)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Had a play with bonnet to hinge adjustment today, starting with the gaps to the leading edges of the doors as a reference point. A bit of tweaking got things closer to the point where the gaps to the rear edge of the headlights are now quite good and the bumper gap is a little better.

Looking at it now it seems the remaining issue is with the front bumper which is lower in the centre than the outsides where it connects to the guards. If I can move the centre up somehow to eliminate the sag I think I'd be happy enough with the result.

Now the question is: can I significantly raise the height of the centre section of the bumper without removing the whole thing and starting again? I've already shimmed underneath the two central plastic bumper tabs secured to the car with torx bolts which helped a little, however these tabs don't look like they are load bearing to the point where I could lift them any further.

Any bumper gurus with some tips?


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## Roller Skate (May 18, 2015)

If you've decided it's probably the bumper, it has to come off. IIRC, there's a couple of adjustable plastic supports that you can adjust the bumper height, again, IIRC you can only access these by removing the bumper. Here's the thing, if the bumpers been off before these supports may have been broken, sadly most of the TT's plastics are brittle as ... well, something really brittle.

Hope this helps.


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## SwissJetPilot (Apr 27, 2014)

You may find what you're looking for in the forum Knowledge Base. Look for workshop manual -

*FAQ - Audi TT (8J) Workshop Manuals & Repair Groups*
https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... &t=1833829

*Exterior Workshop Manual - D3E8006F7B3*


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