Resetting the front bumper

Post by **Graeme4130** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:31 pm

My bumper has a small amount of bonnet line gap to it, which by looking at other RS4's, isn't unusual
is it an easy fix or will I need to thnk about replacing the whole bumper ?

The reason I'm asking is my car's just come back from some work at Audi where they had to take the bumper off, and it's come back exactly the same

Cheers

Graeme

Post by **TonyHayers** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:25 am

The height is adjustable via two fixings, shown in the photo below. You'd need to take the bumper off to get to them and then I found it was a fairly fiddly process of remount bumper, close bonnet, check gaps, open bonnet, remove bumper, make adjustments and repeat

(from http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthrea ... ost2860816)

Post by **P_G** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:15 am

I found out why my bumper was out of place when I had thr car bodywork freshened up; the adjusters are missing!

Which I can only presume happened when it had a new front bumper from Audi 2 years ago as I have not had the bumper off since but no way to prove it. Typical.

Post by **KernowPete** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:34 am

Graeme - you don't need to necessarily take the bumper off to adjust it. I didn't with mine and there's plenty of others on here that didn't either. If you search the B7 forum there's a pretty good 'how to' guide with pictures and everything. I'm completely DIY and mechanically inept and I did mine in about an hour but be warned it is pretty fiddly and you'll probably skin a couple of knuckles!! Good luck

Post by **P_G** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:42 am

Sorry, I should have said that but mine is difficult to get right, particularly bumper to bonnet gap because it is sans adjusters. Revolution have done a good job without, but it might be nice to see what they can do with them in place!

Post by **Madmonkee** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:56 am

I have just done mine, Couple of pointers 1) poor boiling water on the x2 bumper fixings, left and right next to the headlights, they are steel bolts in ally housings which corrode and bind, boiling water helps to get rid of the powder as a result of the ally corrosion (Audi repair garage advised that) 2) put penetrating oil on the same fittings and use a straw to poke down the hole in the slam panel just in front of the above two and fire some on the bumper jacks. Leave awhile and then see if you can can turn it, clockwise will clamp and raise the bumper.

That's the bumper adjuster

Post by **Madmonkee** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:59 am

Bottom pic is the adjusters situated by the headlights circled in red, mine were seized and now one is busted... Sheared it off being a bit heavy handed.

Post by **TonyHayers** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:02 pm

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the bit circled in red isn't the same adjuster in the first photo.

Post by **Teutonic Tuner** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:39 pm

TonyHayers wrote:Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the bit circled in red isn't the same adjuster in the first photo.

Yep that’s what the headlights sit on if I remember rightly; you may need to raise the headlights using these if you are raising the bumper as the headlights may stop the bumper going any higher if it's tight to the underside of the headlights.

Another tip, I found that re-fitting the bumper was difficult until I realised that the bumper bracket that sits on these adjusters has to slip between the 'top hat' section and the washer just below it. I had to open up this gap by unscrewing the top hat section (was seized on mine), then sliding the bumper in place onto the washer, adjust the bumper height then tightening the top hat down onto the bumper bracket.

Post by **Madmonkee** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:51 pm

First pic is the adjuster found on the crash bar, you can just about see the double thread, top half clamps the bumper in place, once tight, if you continue to tighten, it will the turn the larger bottom half of the thread to "jack" it up. These are located and seen through the hole just in front of where the left and right slam panel fixings are, item circled in red are the slam panel fixing, all you will see with the bonnet up are torx heads which screw into this bracket (green arrow)
Pop your head under the bonnet and all will become clear

Post by **'R'e'S'pect_4** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:05 pm

glad this has been covered again, been putting off doing mine as not 100% on procedure. Will have to have a go - sometime!

If I recall correctly (from other threads on this subject), those adjusters on the impact bar cannot be bought separately if broken ??

Post by **spikeyboy101** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:14 pm

Not being funny, but if you have just had the car back from Audi and they had the bumper off, cant you just take it back and say your not happy with the gap after they put it back ?

Are they likely to remeber how the gap was before they took the bumper off ?

Post by **Madmonkee** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:15 pm

Yarp they can

. But you will need to drill out and pop rivet them back on.

Support 8E0 807 381C. £3.53 from stoke Audi.

Post by **TonyHayers** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:31 pm

Great info here, thanks chaps. I didn't adjust (or even notice) the item marked in red - I suppose I didn't need to tho, was only trying to get it back to what it was before I accidentally changed the height of the adjuster (8E0 807 381C).

Post by **Graeme4130** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:03 pm

spikeyboy101 wrote:Not being funny, but if you have just had the car back from Audi and they had the bumper off, cant you just take it back and say your not happy with the gap after they put it back ?

Are they likely to remeber how the gap was before they took the bumper off ?

Exactly, but I wanted to check is was doable before I potentially got palmed off with 'the bumper's deformed and needs replacing' or something similar
Actually, I'll show them thus thread and they'll happily do it for free
Swindon Audi are good guys, but I'm pretty sure that RS Cars arn't their bread and butter in their current unit, so if I can hlp with going thn how, thn. Will where I can

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