Well just had my bumper off!

[ashtons99]

After mulling it over for some time I decided to go for it. I didn't really have a solid reason for wanting to take the bumper off but used the excuse of fitting LED sidelights and re locating the xenon ballasts to somewhere more discreet and out of the engine bay.

Well what a simple task. I did it with 3 tools .... A 10mm socket, torx bit and Phillips head screwdriver. No need to remove arch liner either. In all I removed 12 fasteners and off the front came.

I did the whole job in an hour and a quarter. That included polishing all the bits you can't normally get to moving the ballasts and fitting the new bulbs.

i reckon having done it once if it were just for something simple like a bulb swap I could do it in about half an hour!

So if anyone is thinking of having a go my advice is that it's simple

 

[Carl_1290]

Fantastic mate, yeah i find it easy now i have removed it a few times

What do you mean by not having to remove the arch liner? as i have to and i think im doing something wrong

Where did you put your ballasts mate?

 

[ashtons99]

I left the liner in as the only reason you need to remove it as I can see is to get the bolt out which pulls the wing and bumper together. All I did was pinch the liner towards the front so I could get the socket over the bolt head where the opening is in the liner around the bolt. It worked fine and will be even easier next time as I've swapped the hexagon bolt for a stainless Allen key socketed bolt.

My ballasts were mounted on the inner wings of the car. I have moved them onto the heavy aluminium subframe where the outriggers come through the front of the car. It looks just as dry and protected there. I put them on Velcro pads and tie wrapped them solid.

At least they are not quite as obvious at MOT time now

 

[Paul4d]

You had better luck than me then. I snapped 3 bolts, got pissed off and cable tied the ******* back on

 

[ashtons99]

The bolts were quite stiff to remove, I blasted them with WD while I undid all the rest and went back to them. My car is only a couple of years old but I reckon it wouldn't have been long before they would have been seized. A suggestion to anyone even if they don't intend taking bumper off is to periodically blast a bit of WD or similar through the small opening in the arch liner.

 

[Carl_1290]

Exactly what i did, snapped the wing bolts and my bumper is held on with cable ties on either side snapped straight off even with wd40 and a little bit of heat, just so rusty. A renault guy i know is getting me those you used ashton, the stainless steel allen key bolts to fit

 

[Giles]

I took two bolt out on both side frist things when I got my new 197.

I knew peoples have this problem!

 

[Yiannis197]

Nice one Ashton, i'll have a go myself just to rearrange the ballasts.

Question, have you snapped the blank plate as well for the air feed?

 

[ashtons99]

I'm not sure what you mean yiannis