Big O

Well, my wife was visibly annoyed walking in the door. She low-speed T-boned a Honda Accord in an intersection. Now the bumper is out of whack . . . .<p>There are only two 1" by 0.25" scrapes where the paint is missing, and that is hard to see on a black car (black plastic underneath). But the driver's side remain pushed in about 1.5", while the opposite (right) side sticks out about 0.5". The worst part is that the tip of the bumper cover by the wheelwell (driver's side) now is about 1" out of alignment with the fender (since the whole thing stayed pushed in) and the light assembly is about 0.75" behind the front edge of the hood ?!?!? <p>What the heck makes the light assembly move back? There is no visible damage to anything behind the point where the bumper mount attaches, and no intrusion into the radiator space. Does it mount to the bumper?<p>I fear the same as the posts from the archives where simple scratched bumpers are $500 and up. I think the bumper is salvageable (I can touch up the paint scrape; it's not gouged), but what lurks behind? I can't get in there to see; I'm in a dark parking garage. Help!<p>Since her insurance rates have *just* gone down from the last two slightly bent front bumpers on her Toyota, I don't intend to let the insurance know about this. No complaint was filed. Plus, our deductible is somewhere near a billion dollars anyway . . . . ;-) (that's a pained smile there!)<p>Big O '98 TqMS . . . now 1" shorter. Waahhh!

Steve S.

Really...she needs to drive the Mustang now...the 944 stays in the garage....<br>fermenting....and you get to drive the A4 from now on. Sorry, its the rules....I didn't make em up...I just enforce em.<p>Officer Steve<br>Bumper Police

Big Bumped Bummed O

"Keine Suppe mehr fuer Dich!" would be the German equivalent.<p>I'm about to bolt a Paxton 8 lb blower on the 5.0 GT Mustang and use it as a playtoy; imagine if she took off at the light with that thing! Yikes! Honda sandwich!<p>Should I hurry up and make a firstborn so that we can use it to pay for the damage underneath? I'm sure Audi used some kind of rare Audionium mounts that are $240 each, and it needs ten of them. Right?

Brian P.

For a 2 ft. x 2 in. scrape, on black, they suggested removing the bumper (1.5 hr), spraying the bumper, and then replacing it (1.5 hr) for a total of $266. A new bumper cover runs $700, the skirt for the back is $130 - probably more for the front (but you probably did not damage it). If they have to take it off, it might be worth getting it sprayed (takes a couple of days to dry). However, like the one post said, Audionium mounts -- at least the air bag did not deploy - or did it?

Big O

Nope, they did not. Then again, the Air Bag light is on, 'cuz something happened to a sensor or a wire the other day. Odd coincidence . . <p>I'm worried that there are some expendive pieces underneath that I cannot yet see. Yikes!

Zsolt

I pushed my rear bumper some time ago. It remained pushed in about .25". Minor problem compared to yours.<p>It turned out that there are big bolts in the trunk mounting the SHOCK ABSORBERS that carry the bumper assembly to the body of the car. Loosening these bolts allowed me to hammer the bumper back into position - there is significant play.<p>To adapt this info to your problem: <p>1. Probably there are shock absorbers on the front bumpers as well.<br>2. Since I do not believe there can be 1.5" of play where the bumpers are mounted, your shocks probably remained pushed in. You may or may not "pop" them out.<br>3. For sure you have to find the bolts mounting the whole bumper assembly to the car and loosen them for two reasons: one, you may be able to use the play to reposition the bumper, two, if the shocks are stuck in you must release tension before they may pop out.<p>Go to a dealer and ask them to show you the microfilm about the front bumper assembly. This is how I found out that the bolts at the rear are accessible from the trunk.<p>Good luck, let me know by mail if any of this was successful guess.<p>Zsolt

Big O

Well, the car is going in for the airbag light, the 25,000 service and now also to check out the bumper mounts next Tuesday. Aiieeeee . . . . I'm scared of what they'll say!<p>But I can see the mounts you are talking about; they are square and held on by four 10mm or so bolts. I just hope the internal bumper mounts (tabs or whatever) that attach to the bumper aren't torn off.<p>The headlight is pushed in about 3/4", too. Yikes! But I see no bent metal anywhere . . . but the washer stays up now when you use it, so it's definitely a little out of whack.<p>Did you loosen the bolts that hold the bumper mount, and that relieves the pressure?