Large gap between your bumper and grill?
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:36 pm
I thought the following might be usefull info after reading about another members bumper alignment issue. It is not unique to my B7 RS4. But all B7 A4s with the big grill.
3weeks after picking up my first EVER new car, it being my current B7
RS4 avant. A row dear decided to jump out in front of me. Thankfully the damage was cosmetic but still required the replacement of the front bumper and wing.
I had the car repaired by allegedly the best body shop around - Porche, Merc, etc approved as my local Audi bodyshop are terrible!
However, even these guys did not produce a 100% job first time despite being warned I am an incredibly fussy bugger and list of expectations before they quoted for the job!
The main issue I had was a horrendously large gap between the new front bumper/grill and the bonnet.
The bodyshop had noted this on assembly but could find no way to rectify it as the bumper aligned properly with the contour around the wings, lifting the bumper to close the gap at the bonnet would cause misalignment at the wings. So despite looking at various A4 front ends they were at a loss for the reason to the excessive gap. We both knew the impact was light so it was not a structural issue and the orginal bumper still fitted perfectly.
I had to admit I was stumped to the reason other than the replacement bumper was somehow short! So I refused the repair.
After a lot of head scratching and two new bumpers. The bodyshop had a hunch it was due to the bumper sagging while being baked to the high temps in the booth.
Incredible as this sounds their hunch was true. Apparently bodyshops fix bumpers etc onto jigs / tables in such an orientation to ensure they are painted in the optimum postion so you don't get thin areas etc. Anyway, the way they had jigged my bumper, (the optimum position for most cars) results in the bumper sagging when subject to the high paint baking temps. They re-jigged the bumper and supported it in a different way which allowed the bumper to sag back into the correct position.
Incredibly Audi UK and a number of Audi bodyshops were (June 07) unaware of this issue despite noting that the gaps vary considerably on all A4s.
Since June I've noticed quite a few A4s etc with various gaps none as bad as mine was but bad none the less. The good news is this problem can be rectified on the current bumper.
It even works if you have clear film coatings eg. armorfend like mine does to no ill effect.
3weeks after picking up my first EVER new car, it being my current B7
RS4 avant. A row dear decided to jump out in front of me. Thankfully the damage was cosmetic but still required the replacement of the front bumper and wing.
I had the car repaired by allegedly the best body shop around - Porche, Merc, etc approved as my local Audi bodyshop are terrible!
However, even these guys did not produce a 100% job first time despite being warned I am an incredibly fussy bugger and list of expectations before they quoted for the job!
The main issue I had was a horrendously large gap between the new front bumper/grill and the bonnet.
The bodyshop had noted this on assembly but could find no way to rectify it as the bumper aligned properly with the contour around the wings, lifting the bumper to close the gap at the bonnet would cause misalignment at the wings. So despite looking at various A4 front ends they were at a loss for the reason to the excessive gap. We both knew the impact was light so it was not a structural issue and the orginal bumper still fitted perfectly.
I had to admit I was stumped to the reason other than the replacement bumper was somehow short! So I refused the repair.
After a lot of head scratching and two new bumpers. The bodyshop had a hunch it was due to the bumper sagging while being baked to the high temps in the booth.
Incredible as this sounds their hunch was true. Apparently bodyshops fix bumpers etc onto jigs / tables in such an orientation to ensure they are painted in the optimum postion so you don't get thin areas etc. Anyway, the way they had jigged my bumper, (the optimum position for most cars) results in the bumper sagging when subject to the high paint baking temps. They re-jigged the bumper and supported it in a different way which allowed the bumper to sag back into the correct position.
Incredibly Audi UK and a number of Audi bodyshops were (June 07) unaware of this issue despite noting that the gaps vary considerably on all A4s.
Since June I've noticed quite a few A4s etc with various gaps none as bad as mine was but bad none the less. The good news is this problem can be rectified on the current bumper.
It even works if you have clear film coatings eg. armorfend like mine does to no ill effect.