eddie25

So my wife parked in the driveway differently than normal and I scraped her car while backing out (it was pitch-dark out in my defense).

I was reversing while turning left and scraped it with my passenger side front bumper.

It's not the scratches I'm worried about as it is the separation I'm getting on the opposite (driver) side of the front bumper. It popped out from around the headlight and now there is a gap. I can press it back in so that it lines up, but it just goes back to the same position. I don't totally understand how the clips work. Do you think I may have warped it (does that happen)?, or did I just get released from a clip? Push harder? Remove and re-install?

I'm comfortable trying to remove the bumper with the info out there, but I sort of imagine that when I put it back on it will have the same problem.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

E46CT

There are little tabs on the bumper that go into the headlight. You can kind of see them there in the pic. they could've broke. not sure.


but you should be able to remove and reset the bumper. i have a feeling it should be fine.

you can wrap duct tape (thin strip) around the tab to sort of rebuild it. (you can do it the right way too but that would be quite an involved project)

the whole bumper wouldn't need to be removed. you can simply undo the top and pull it out and reset it while the bottom is still attached.

you simply undo the fasteners in the fender liner toward the front of the car, and undo the top plastic piece in the engine compartment by pushing on the tabs with your fingers then pulling up (no tools required for those) then undo some screws around the top of the bumper along w/ more plastic tabs (you'll need a screw driver)

then you walk around to the fenders and pull the bumper edge out towards you. (make sure you have the hidden 10mm fastener screws removed or the bumper wont budge) they point up towards the sky. one on each side. once you have the bumper pulled out on left and right sides by the fenders. you can walk around to the front of the car and wiggle and pull the bumper out towards you and down. it'll sort of pivot and hang. then you can see how it attaches to the headlights. make sure everything is locked in evenly. nothing should be forced. just a matter of positioning things just right.

eddie25

Thanks a ton, I'll probably try this when I get a chance and post back how it went. I appreciate it.

eddie25

So I finally got to this. I appreciate the advice, it helped a lot but unfortunately I was relatively unsuccessful.

I must have warped it a bit because that clip/tab that you can see in the picture just won't stay, it doesn't appear to be broken it just won't stay clipped. I was at least able to get the tab of the bumper resting over the clip how it's supposed to be, so the gap is a little less.

Can you expound on the duct tape idea? Is the tab you are talking about the one on the bumper or the one on the light housing?

It was also nice to see how the bumper is connected. It must have been removed at some point previously because one of those hidden 10mm was a 14mm bolt.

Anybody know the part number for the square white bumper clip that the 10mm goes into?

I guess I'll live with it.