Can Ride Height Change?

[Parthiban]

Had a call from my brother earlier asking about a bizarre problem with his Z4...........he parks in the same car park everyday and it has a kerb at the top of the space which he always drives up to and over until the front wheels pretty much touch it.

However, today he parked in exactly the same way, no drama, and when he returned to the car didn't notice anything different (but admits he wasn't paying too much attention) and on reversing out of the space, the kerb has pulled the right corner of the front bumper off!

He says he went through a pothole earlier in the day and isn't sure whether it's done some suspension damage, but other than that visually the car still looks fine, it isn't driving any different, and it went over the kerb in the first place without even touching it. If it had just dropped a bit so that the bottom of the bumper just scraped across the kerb, that would make a little more sense, but to have dropped so far that it got ripped clean off is baffling.

So basically we're both a bit confused as to how the car could have dropped so low after parking that the bumper could get pulled off, and how has it risen back up again?

Is it possible for something to be damaged to cause the ride height to vary? The car's going in to BMW tomorrow but grateful for any ideas as it's got me really confused!

[Andy-R]

Slow puncture?

[Parthiban]

Slow puncture?

That wouldn't really do it in this case, as they're pretty low profile tyres and they're runflats - this makes for an incredibly uncomfortable ride, but when they're flat, they don't really drop at all as the tyre is pretty much just a lump of rubber.

[Andy-R]

Don't know then matey.

[Parthiban]

Don't know then matey.

Cheers for trying, it really is an odd one. I was thinking maybe the shock could be knackered or something, but the car isn't visibly sitting on the ground anymore either........

[Andy-R]

If shock had gone he'd of probably noticed whilst driving, are the springs ok?

[Parthiban]

Yeah he said it looks fine, drives fine, wheels aren't clipping the arch or anything.........

[Andy-R]

Don't know then matey best just let BMW look at it.