Rear plastic bumper pushed in

[matt_vo]

Hi all,
Was wondering if it was possible to pull-out my rear bumper. It has been pushed in by years of parallel parking. Are the bumper shocks themselves pushed in permanently, or can I extend them to their original length?

THanks,
Matt

[Jean]

Just replace them, they are about $10 each at any pick and pull place.

[Teaguer]

Just replace them, they are about $10 each at any pick and pull place.

3


True . But being that hes in Canada I'd be willing to bet that getting the rear shocks out of a car thats been sitting in a yard for a while is no easy feat .

And the dealer charges about $65 per shock so I would first try to pull the bumper out .

I've done it a million times on metal bumpered cars but never on a plastic car .
You would have to hook underneath the bumper sopmehow and attach it to a fixed point and then ease the car away to pull the bumper out under the cars power .

You'd be risking cracking the plastic though .
Always the option to screw in the tow hook but that is only attached to one shock and it might come out uneven .

I would try pulling it out with something attached first and if that does not yield the desired results I would drill into the shocks like the bumper tuck process for metal bumpers .
At that point you could pull it out with your hands .

[matt_vo]

Just replace them, they are about $10 each at any pick and pull place.

Are they just bolted to the frame of the car?
I'm afraid that pulling the shocks out by attaching them to something and using the car's power is a little risky, I might bend and warp my rear valence no?
I thought it was a simple process of just pulling'em out by hand, maybe use a bit of force, but not 168hp! (325i)

Thanks for the replies.

[MikeE30325i]

just get some dental floss, hook it around a tooth, and pull. the bumper should pop right out.

lol, back on subject. the bumpers are held on by two bolts to the shock, and three bolts to the body of the car. the three holding it to the body of the car are on the inside, facing the bumper and one is on the side of the frame that the shocks are inside of. the nut for one of the passenger side shocks is only accessible from inside the trunk, down near where the battery is.

i think they are all 14 millimeter. but i cant recall for sure. beware of the drivers side, the exhaust might be hot.

[backtrail69]

With the late model cars you can pull two torx bolts from under the bumper and pull the bumper right off after disconnecting sidemarkers/turnsignals(front). The there are TWO bolts holding the shocks on. The late cars don't have the 3rd bolt in the back (which sucks).

[ACHTUNG]

I have to do this too!

[bmw325csi]

i drilled my shocks and let the oil out then i pulled the using a come-along and a tree then i welded little spots on the shocks to keep them from moving, still working.:up: