Hi guys,
first proper forum post here, but have been a regular visitor here since getting my 2003 2.5 in February, which I absolutely love. Am a bit of a noob mechanically (but not completely terrified of the job either), and am probably more chuffed with myself than I should be at having so far installed an aux cable and retrofitted cruise control with the help of the guide on this forum, but am now looking to deal with a rather larger issue, namely the front bumper, which was a bit damaged when I bought the car.
As you can see from the below, the front right hand side the bumper hangs a little lower than it does on the left, also the headlight is a bit recessed. Although there’s a little bit of play when you press on it, it still feels pretty firmly attached. My suspicion is that the previous owner bumped something gently (note the scuff mark on the front which has penetrated the clear coat) and broke the plastic tabs on the bumper and headlight (the ones designed to break when you whack a pedestrian, as I understand it). Have been a bit nervous of taking the thing off in case I can’t put it back together again.
Questions:
· Does this look like what’s happened to you?
· If so, is there a tab repair kit available for sensible money that a non technical expert such as me could use?
· How long do you think the total repair job would likely take?
· Any other thoughts – I’d really like to avoid forking out cash to a garage to fix something like this…
Thanks!
Charlie
first proper forum post here, but have been a regular visitor here since getting my 2003 2.5 in February, which I absolutely love. Am a bit of a noob mechanically (but not completely terrified of the job either), and am probably more chuffed with myself than I should be at having so far installed an aux cable and retrofitted cruise control with the help of the guide on this forum, but am now looking to deal with a rather larger issue, namely the front bumper, which was a bit damaged when I bought the car.
As you can see from the below, the front right hand side the bumper hangs a little lower than it does on the left, also the headlight is a bit recessed. Although there’s a little bit of play when you press on it, it still feels pretty firmly attached. My suspicion is that the previous owner bumped something gently (note the scuff mark on the front which has penetrated the clear coat) and broke the plastic tabs on the bumper and headlight (the ones designed to break when you whack a pedestrian, as I understand it). Have been a bit nervous of taking the thing off in case I can’t put it back together again.
Questions:
· Does this look like what’s happened to you?
· If so, is there a tab repair kit available for sensible money that a non technical expert such as me could use?
· How long do you think the total repair job would likely take?
· Any other thoughts – I’d really like to avoid forking out cash to a garage to fix something like this…
Thanks!
Charlie
