I think I ripped my bumper off >:(

[Phrost]

I'm on H&R springs, and have been having a blast plowing snow around town with my car. Winter tires makes it unstoppable, so I'm usually the one to cart people around in the winter.

So I had a nice night planned, where me and 3 guys were going to sit in a hottub at some hotel downtown and down a dirty thirty and whatever else we had then probably get a room since it's so late. Fun fun fun, I was excited to relax.

Pick up friend #1, proceed to go to friend #2's house and pull in his driveway. It's a bachelor pad so they never shovel the driveway, and I thought whatever and plowed my way into it. Things were going good. THEN I put her in reverse, and started backing out of the driveway. CRACK I heard, and thought "fuck that was probably my skid plate, from nailing chunks of ice falling off of cars all winter". WRONG. I got out of my car to find my entire front bumper hanging down, and one headlight wobbly. There was a good 6" of ice in the center of the driveway, so my bumper grabbed it and it looks like I ripped most of the screws out of it. One of the mounts next to a headlight is cracks off for sure, but this fucking sucks.

I have a holiday at work tomorrow, but I'm going to have to take my front bumper off AGAIN in my frozen/wet garage and try to get it back on correctly. If I snapped a bunch of mounts or stripped the screw holes, I'm going to be very fucking pissed. I don't want to have to buy a new bumper for this stupid reason, or have to jerry rig it into place and have it break again some time. THIS SUCKS



car in question, last summer

[blackbox619]

aiyee... i had that happen to my previous ride. its an unbearable sound. hopefully you can put everything back in place without wasting any money... good luck!

[Phrost]

I'll drink a few with my guy friends any day, and if there's a hottub then of course I'm going to get into it. Don't know if there would have been any random girls there or not, but who cares?

Anyway, I guess I'm going to go try to fix the bumper right now after I eat something. It better not be cracked apart everywhere

[DrewBo]

i managed to rip the little plastic piece off of the front bumper (in front of the wheel) when I went through some snow the other day

[B7A4Sport]

Sucks to hear Phrost, incidental/accidental damage just plain sucks no matter how you play it - especially since this probably isn't damage that can be reasonably attributed to hit and run. If the clips and stuff are broke but not the actual bumper, see if junk yards have some parts you can salvage from somethin' else.

[Tru NY Player]

Wowzers!
Sorry to hear about the whip..
Hopefully they got some ky ..uh I mean bondo for you ..

Good luck with repairs..
Its an audi so no vasoline ..

[Phrost]

Well, I just got everything apart. It's going to cost some money, but I'm going to reuse the entire bumper since it has no paint damage. So here is what happened:

Basically, all that was holding on my bumper when I got home was the top 3 torx screws. I took them out, bumper came off, and tons of ice fell out lol. One of the brackets on the top snapped, but that's only a couple bucks to replace.


Skid plate fell to the floor...


This part sucks. I then noticed my headlights were loose, and the two brackets on top that are attached to the headlights snapped off.




Remember when you took your front bumper off, and had to remove the fender liner to take out those 4 10mm (I think) bolts holding the bumper on from behind? Well I'll never have to do that again because mine completely snapped off.




I think it will look fine and I'll just leave it, because it is not visible and I don't think those 4 huge bolts are absolutely necessary. However, all the smaller allen bolts in the wheel well ripped out of the bumper, so I'll probably have to drill oversized bolts into the holes or find another way to secure the bumper back on...

WTF I'm not even that low. H&R springs on 16" winter wheels


I guess I'll be buying parts from www.genuinevwaudiparts.com, we'll see how much it ends up costing Otherwise if any vendors sell these parts or someone has other recommendations, I have open ears

[whartung]

knockoff DTM front bumper for 400ish bucks and epoxy for the headlight brackets...

[Sharkfin]

Since the same exact thing happened to me Phrost I'm going to make a recommendation. In order to have correct fitment you will need a new bumper without those 4 screws (2 on each side) the bumper will never fit perfectly. Mine snapped as well and I just got a DTM bumper. My recommendation is put it on for now and then order the bumper asap. If you have any other questions about what I did holla at me.

Bottomline that sucks and I know the feeling!

[Quattro]

Phrost, I know how you are feeling, the same thing happened to me about a week ago...i under estimated and ya, bumper on the sides is shaggy, I broke my bumper guides and is going to get fixed. Thankfully, my headlights are ok, but I might get a new headlight tab kit.


I feel your pain!

[Phrost]

Well, I guess I'm not the only one this has happened to then... So limp on this bumper for the rest of the winter, then buy a brand new one so it fits correctly?

I'm just going to buy another oem non s-line bumper, because I want the fogs and I already have the grill, filler, etc. and it will be cheapest. However, I don't see anyone selling a bumper right now, so can people help me out with buying options?

genuineaudiparts.com wants about $350 plus shipping
someone in another thread said the dealer sells them for about $360 that I can pick up myself...
I'll have to paint whatever I get and I can have that done for about $100, so I don't care if I find a used one or not.

[Bllzll]

im sure you could find a nonsline to sell you their bumper easily

[Sharkfin]

there are a few on ebay right now, only 100-200 bucks

[Phrost]

there are a few on ebay right now, only 100-200 bucks

Most of those are salvage bumpers, that need repair as well as a new paint job. There is one good one (freshly painted in my color too ) that is selling for $425 shipped if I buy it now.

However, genuinevwaudiparts.com wells a new one unpainted for $360 shipped. I can get a great paint job for under $100 for sure, so I'd rather pay $450ish all said and done and not have to worry about shipping damage etc etc from ebay.

I just went to my dealer for parts, and they want $196 for the main belly pan. The website above sells it for about $150 shipped so I'm returning the one I just bought and saving myself the almost $50 from the stealership.

I'm going to try to put the bumper back on today and see how it fits. I'm pretty sure all the screws in the wheel well ripped out, so it may not work... but if it sits securely I may not buy a new bumper after all. Worst case scenario, this little event is going to cost me $650 all said and done plus a epoxy rigged job and a lot of my time to fix the headlight brackets . Best case it will cost about $200-250 and I will have a rigged bumper. Some might say it's the price to pay to have a nice car, but WTF

[Phrost]

I'd also like to add the little chain of events to what caused this, so maybe people can save themselves the trauma in the future.

1) Hitting large chunks of ice on roads, that fall off of other cars. Can't always avoid them, but I had a hunch one had to have broken my belly pan.

2) Ice broke belly pan, so instead of being securely screwed to the body, it cracked and hung down.

3) Backed up out of a driveway, with a lot of snow/ice. Belly pan caught ice, Quattro kept me backing up, and since the belly pan is attached so well it took the bumper with it.

That's what I think happened, it may have just been the bumper that grabbed.

My friend with a Honda kept saying the bumper was going to fall off if I drove it home, but he is used to a Honda that only has about 4 screws holding a bumper on. I wasn't aware I had enough traction to rip out almost 10 screws and rip apart the brackets held on my 4 large bolts. But whatever, it could have been worse and at least nobody was hurt.

I'm going to go shoot my hand gun for the first time today, hopefully that takes away some of the anger

[Sharkfin]

Haha yeah I caught mine on a curb in my parking lot because I pulled up 6 inches to far, it stuck and I backed up and ripped off the screws on each side, but the 3 in the engine bay stayed.

[RedS-line]

Any updates to this phrost? I just popped my bumper loose over a hidden roadway obstruction and im teetering between going to Maaco or the dealer.

[grizzles]

... plus a epoxy rigged job and a lot of my time to fix the headlight brackets ...

you should just pickup the tab repair kit (P/N# 8E0 998 121 B), it's not super cheap but it's an easy, clean fix.

is your deductible too high to justify making a claim?

[Phrost]

Any updates to this phrost? I just popped my bumper loose over a hidden roadway obstruction and im teetering between going to Maaco or the dealer.

I ordered some, which are hopefully all of the parts I need. However, it has been <10 degrees and we had a freezing rain storm 2 days ago so I haven't had time to try to put it back together. I'm still driving around with my bumper off

you should just pickup the tab repair kit (P/N# 8E0 998 121 B), it's not super cheap but it's an easy, clean fix.

is your deductible too high to justify making a claim?

Where can I buy the tab repair kit, other than the dealer?

I raised my deductible to $1,000 from $500 (to save money) so not only is it not worth it but I don't want my insurance to go any higher. I made a large claim 3 years ago I'm still paying an uber high premium for

[grizzles]

sorry man, don't know where to get it besides the dealer

[Phrost]

http://www.genuinevwaudiparts.com/pa...05&catalogid=2

same thing? Click "view illustration"

[grizzles]

http://www.genuinevwaudiparts.com/pa...05&catalogid=2

same thing? Click "view illustration"

yup, same drawing I found in ETKA when I was looking for it. good find, I paid almost twice that at the dealer