How difficult is it re-align the front bumper?
10-22-2001, 04:35 AM
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How difficult is it re-align the front bumper?
Got into a small fender bender - I hit a car in front of me (5-10 mph), slightly off center, passenger side. The only damage you can see is that the whole bumper/air dam unit has shifted maybe 1/4" to 3/8" in (under passenger headlamp) and over (towards drivers side).
Just wondering if a bumper re-alignment is very involved (due to oil/inter coolers, fogs, tight space, etc.). Do you think, it is OK to go to a 3rd party body shop or should this be handled by an Audi dealer? Also, do you think I may have damaged the unibody?
Just wondering if a bumper re-alignment is very involved (due to oil/inter coolers, fogs, tight space, etc.). Do you think, it is OK to go to a 3rd party body shop or should this be handled by an Audi dealer? Also, do you think I may have damaged the unibody?
10-22-2001, 05:56 AM
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Ha, I have yet to find a shop that can get it straight. Good Luck
When I got in an accident, dealer swapped the entire bumper. It looked straight when I picked it up, but it shifted, and no one has ever gotten it on correctly.
10-22-2001, 06:40 AM
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Wondering if I should just live with it?...
I know if I go to Audi, they'll say to replace the whole bumper - what did that cost you, if you don't mind be asking? Other than the likelihood of compressed/bent bumper shocks noted below, my damage seems totally cosmetic, you have to look pretty closely to notice the shift.
Aside from obvious cost/insurance issues, I just don't want a bunch of mechanics removing all the body work just to tell me they need to order parts, replace the whole bumper, leave the car for weeks, or worse, screw something else up.
Aside from obvious cost/insurance issues, I just don't want a bunch of mechanics removing all the body work just to tell me they need to order parts, replace the whole bumper, leave the car for weeks, or worse, screw something else up.
10-22-2001, 07:03 AM
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for what it's worth.....
I have seen an S4 in the service dept. at my dealer with the entire bumber cap removed and I pointed it out to the sevice rep and asked him "did the car get wrecked?" and he said no that they remove the bumper often to replace parts in the nose cap.
He said they were looking at the IC on this particular car but that is a 'standard procedure' to pull the bumper off . If that is in fact, the "truth" then I would imagine the dealer may be able to get the bumper to look right. At least is sounds as if they get a good bit of 'practice'.....
Who knows really, dealers aren't always telling us the truth as we have all read on this board MANY times over.
He said they were looking at the IC on this particular car but that is a 'standard procedure' to pull the bumper off . If that is in fact, the "truth" then I would imagine the dealer may be able to get the bumper to look right. At least is sounds as if they get a good bit of 'practice'.....
Who knows really, dealers aren't always telling us the truth as we have all read on this board MANY times over.
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10-22-2001, 07:11 AM
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Questions:
The more I read, the more I am inclined I am to do this myself as well. Any special tools required? Can you reasonably access the key bumper mounting point with rhino ramps and all grill covers/bottom engine shield removed? Is there enough play in the brackets to shift the bumper around or do you need to "bend" things back?
10-22-2001, 07:26 AM
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Cost for a new bumper...
Bumper was $600, but after all was said and done, it was up around $1200. Luckily I paid $0. I was at work and in the building when one of my idiotic co-workers decided she needed to back her oversized truck into my front end. Funny thing is I was parked about 10ft behind her. To this day I have no understanding of why she backed up so far. When it happen everyone expected me to blow up at her, instead I was laughing my *** off because of the rediculously poor driving skills. Of course she was one of these people that didn't have insurance and had to give me a personal check. I love that. Oh yea, it took me 3mos to get the bumper from oversees. I imagine this is much quicker now. This all happened back in early 2000 when S4's were way too rare.
