Rear Ended a Car, Bumper slightly bent down - how to fix

Ezekiel2517 · January 4, 2017

Yesterday I got distracted at a light and took off too soon and hit the small car in front of me. No excuses, it just wasn't my day. It was not a very hard hit, it was only a couple mph hit. It was weird though because it was an older car and they just took off. So no police report was filed.

At first glance I thought I suffered no damage at all except for a very small ding that I could live with. One further inspection, I believe that my bumper has been slightly bent downward. It is very uniform in the sag as it seems symmetric from side to side. You can see in the photo that the gap between the painted section and the chrome is lower in the middle that on the edges.

Coincidentally I had this bumper taken off the truck just a month ago at a body shop that attempted to beat out another small, almost unnoticeable dent.

A couple questions:

1. Could the re-installation of the bumper been done wrong and cause this sag and I never noticed it? Or contributed to the sag after the impact.

2. Can anyone identify in the bumper diagram what parts I might need to replace that are the likely bent culprits? I think that it comes down to items 14, 37, 44, 45, and 46. I could order and replace them all, but I don't know if that is needed. Or if it could be worse than I think.

I am leery to file an insurance claim because of rate increases and deductibles, but mostly because that hit stays on the carfax and screw up resale later.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

cbrsilv15 · January 5, 2017

Just go under the front and loosen a bunch of bolts. Shift the bumper up and have someone else tighten the bolts back down.

When I took out my fog lights the bumper shifted down a little bit. Had to loosen and hold up and retighten the bolts and its all good now.

Ezekiel2517 · January 5, 2017

Thanks. I will check that out first before going too far with this.

Knightfall · January 5, 2017

I don't really notice anything to be honest. You aren't going apesh*t over this small bump which I appreciate; I can't stand it when people go full nuclear meltdown over minor car accidents. But I would do what was mentioned above or on your next oil change just be honest with the service folks and see if they'll help you out.

Ezekiel2517 · January 5, 2017

Yeah, it is certainly not the end of the world. For the normal person from day to day, it is not noticeable. Heck it took me two days to realize it. For trade in or resale time, it will stand out like a sore thumb to a trained eye though.

This is not a big hurry for me. Just something I want to understand better so I can fix in due time. I narrowly missed a complete bumper assembly on craigslist for $150 yesterday. That would have been perfect.

I was thinking of going back to that Paintless Dent Repair place who worked on it last to see if they would see what they could do to straighten it up for a hundred bucks or so. They are cheap, and this is a pain the butt to work on alone. It might be worth it.