Fjoelli

I'm having problems getting my front bumper to line up. I bought this car a few months ago. Its a salvage title due to a front end collision. If anyone has experience with this I would really appreciate the help.

Fjoelli

schen72

Sorry, this is way beyond me. I'm guessing you need a body shop to fix this for you.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

take bumper off.
inspect bumper clips/hardware to make sure all are straight/not bent.

GhostTL09

iTrader: (1)

buy a new car, no more bumper problems

sherv

Hi.
I also had to replace my front end and had this exact same issue. I found that the body shop had not put in all the clips to hold upper part of the grille against the frame. I used those black plastic push-in clips. Once I added those it sucked the grille portion down and back and the fitment was much better.
Hope this helps.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

pull the bumper off to inspect damage. then proceed from there

Jakes_tl

Someone did a shitty job fixing this car. My guess is the problem is deeper than the bumper. It me it looks like the radiator support and frame might not be be aligned.

Fjoelli

Thanks everyone for the input! I think you are right Jake there has to be something bent under the bumper. The alignment is off on the drivers side front tire ( I knew this before I purchased the car) and I can't get it straight. I've had my mechanic jack up the front end and take the wheel off and it looks like the frame is slightly bent. The wheel sits about a quarter inch back in the wheel well. Therefore it makes sense that other things are also bent. I knew that I would have to deal with this when buying a car that had been in an accident but I wanted a reliable, newer, somewhat luxury car and I didn't want to have to finance it. Anyway, I am going to take the bumper cover off and see what's going on under there. I will post an update when I figure something out. Thanks again

Jakes_tl

I've bought and worked on wrecked cars quite a bit so i know someone was really cutting corners when rebuilding this car. I know is this something that you are probably trying to avoid but I would find a frame shop and have them pull everything out to specs and then everything should align up good.

Fjoelli

You're right, I think that having a body shop try to get it as straight as possible is the best thing to do. I was hoping that I could avoid that since the car drives fine, but I want to keep the car for a while and its worth it to me to have everything line up correctly.

If anyone has a recommendation of a good shop in the sf bay area id really appreciate it if you let me know. Also, has anyone gotten their frame pulled? What is a reasonable price if the frame is only slightly bent?

Chrifff

Sorry... I am chiming in here a little late.

I have to agree, I think there is something wrong with the frame. I have pulled the bumper off my ILX 3 times and my previous vehicle (2008 Honda Civic SI) 2 twice and did not have any alignment issues. The clips are pretty much only one way in with a few screws = pretty dummy proof. I am pretty confident your bumper was installed correctly and the frame is your issue. Good luck!

Fjoelli

So I took the bumper off and just as expected the frame as well as the radiator mount are bent on the driver side. Also the fender lining was ripped to shreds and hanging on by a couple screws. So I got a new fender lining and I'm thinking about what to do about the frame. Thanks everyone

schen72

I guess that explains why it was salvage.