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I was washing my car today when I actually stopped to look at it closely. While I was washing the front I realized that there is about a 3/4" gap between the bottom of my headlights and the top of my bumper. My headlights are perfectly aimed and the only thing I can think of that could have an affect would be the fact that my car got backed into by a car going approximately 15 mph (my passenger side front quarter panel got buckled out a little bit). Is the fender bender responsible for the gap? And outside of replacing the bumper, it the problem easily fixable?

My car has a similar gap..I don't think it's 3/4" though. It's probably closer to 1/4".

Same here (about 1/4").

sounds like your subframe may have been bent down at some point.

solution: the bodyman's friend



you'll need to remove the bumper cover and possibly beam to see what's bent under there, more than likely

My bumper is slightly tilted down from impacting huge chunks of snow kicked off by plows on the highway ... on purpose. I definitely had a larger gap before I did the headlight swap. If the sides of your bumper aren't real tight to the fender then it's not where it should be.

Steve

here's another thing: the bracket/clip on the bottom of my grill is broken in half so a screw no longer holds my grill onto my car. the grill is being held on to the engine area by two zip ties i think this might have happened when i got backed into. maybe the bumper got pushed down and broke the clip. it's nothing too major, right? nothing's rusting or falling off so i think it'll be okay.

The grille should have 7 clips that hold it in - 4 on top, 3 on the bottom. There are a couple of ways to remove them, but they can only be reused so many times and they do suffer from environmental exposure over time. Putting a zip tie through the holes in the grille and body that the clips should go through would be fine. You don't need all 7 either.

Steve

yeah, all the clips have been broken. understandable, since my car is 15 years old! i only have two zip ties on the top holding the grill on, so it doesn't look too bad. plus, they're black, so they blend in with the grill nicely . i plan on getting a new grill anyway, so the problem will be solved. i think replacing the bumper would be unnecessary and not worthwhile. it gives my car character

Suzie-Q wrote:yeah, all the clips have been broken. understandable, since my car is 15 years old!

My car turns 15 in December, and I have 6/7 clips (my dad broke one when he was taking off the grille)

Booya!!!!

My car was 15 in June and still has all the clips.

You shouldn't have to replace the bumper if it's pointed down as the support under it is what's bent. Removing the bumper cover and bending it back up (with a jack under it?) would likely fix it. At some point I'll get around to it myself.

Steve

The Front bumper on my Wagon is sagging, looks like it had been backed into or something. No damage to the bumper, but there is a noticeable gap between the headlights and the top of the bumper.

I really want to repair this as it makes my car look like crap.



Does this mean I need to remove the bumper and bend something back in place? Or are there bolts that hold the bumper and I can losen and just adjust it?

-Brian

TheSubaruJunkie wrote:The Front bumper on my Wagon is sagging, looks like it had been backed into or something. No damage to the bumper, but there is a noticeable gap between the headlights and the top of the bumper.

I really want to repair this as it makes my car look like crap.



Does this mean I need to remove the bumper and bend something back in place? Or are there bolts that hold the bumper and I can losen and just adjust it?

-Brian

ur car looks real good, i like white, but then again i like silver, but then again i need to align my doors, get two new front fenders,a bumper, a hoob, and new corner lights , a new rear bumper, the rear trunch lid needs to be sanded, and repainted, and my doors need some bondo, and some sanding, so that i guess could cause the car to looks a little crappy

Yeah the car looks great, but that gap under the headlights is an eyesore. I have plans to install a modified grill, and I want to install some foglights in the bumper... but I wanna take care of the bumper 1st.

-Brian

holy carp!

first thing u need to do is clean those headlights. those are dangerously hazy. can you even see at night!?

nope, i cant see at night. And yes, I plan on doing that. I found a pair on ebay, but I think i'll try cleaning these 1st.

Regardless... can we stick to the topic at hand? What all am I looking at in order to bring my bumper back up?

-Brian