Loose front bumper after parking against kerb. (Fiesta).

sonny liston

Hi folks,
moving the car(06 Ford Fiesta) into a parking bay last night, I wedged the underneath of front bumper up against the kerb at the end of the bay.
I was moving extremely slowly at the time.
I notice now there is a bit of give in the front bumper. I can rock it back and forth a couple of cms.
Not sure if it was like that before, or even if this is normal?
There is no rattling or anything like that when driving (yet).

Should I look to tighten the front panel up?
Is it straightforward to do?
Where can I find instructions on how to do this?

Thanks.

Hal1

Jack up and support the car with the front wheels removed. Then remove the wheel arch liners, from there you can check were the bumper attaches to the wings.

At the front were the grill is you should see the screws for the front supports and can tighten them accordingly. If the screw or bolt has torn or stretched the hole you can use a big washer and tighten it down.


It would be handy to check a manual to see were all the screws go or check a few youtube videos. Hope this helps.

sonny liston

Thanks a lot Hal1,

there are 3 bolts that I could find between the bumper and the wings.
The 1st I could access by removing the front lights(real awkward to get lights out and back in again).
The other two I could access by removing the wheel and wheel arch liners as you suggested.
These all seemed fine actually.

There are two torx screw connections between each wheel arch liner and the front bumper.
One of the holes for these screws on the bumper had burst(probably when I hit the kerb), so the screw connecting the arch liner to it was now loose.
I think this is where most of the movement on the bumper was coming from.
I repaired the hole with some glue & some "builder's" tape and the front bumper is more stable now with the arch liner screwed into it.

Not sure how long the fix will last, especially if the tape gets wet?
The tape is protected from the rain and the spray from the road, but will condensation form under there?

There are a few plastic "clip-in" connections at the grill which are fine.
I could not find any "screws for the front supports" that you mentioned.

The only other connections I could see were underneath the car. Again, two plastic "clip-in" connections between the bottam of the bumper and radiator frame(I think).

Hal1

If it comes loose again I would use some self taping screws were possible to hold it in place.