Question: I’m a bit ashamed to admit this, but I was texting and driving (I know I shouldn’t) and hit the curb. Long story short, no one was hurt, but my front bumper came off. It could have been worse, and I’m thankful it wasn’t, but I do want to fix the bumper. How can I fix a bumper that fell off?
Answer: Bumpers don’t take much before they get dislodged. A little bump, a little scrape and a little shunt and they’re out of place.
More frequently, you’ll find that a side of your bumper is just out of place and no longer flush with the rest of the bodywork. In a more serious collision, the whole bumper will fall off. If you want to reinstall your bumper, regardless of how severe the damage is, the key is to ensure that your bumper’s attachment hardware is still serviceable.
Your ability to reinstall your bumper depends on what broke to cause your bumper to fall off. The good news is that sometimes you can use bolts, rivets, zip ties, glue or tape to reattach the bumper. The bad news is that sometimes, depending on the severity of the damage, you’ll need to buy a brand new bumper.
How to fix a car bumper falling off?
Assuming your bumper had no damage, you might be able to just push it in, and it’ll lock in place. So give it a push and see if it stays in place.
If that doesn’t work, then you might have a more serious problem that requires either replacement of parts or some DIY work if you don’t want to replace the whole bumper.
There are three common mounting methods:
- Clips: These look like bolts but they use a pinching method to stay in place. These are inserted into a clip mount and pressed on its head to secure it.
- Mounting tabs: These oval-shaped or rectangular tabs molded into the inside of the bumper that get pushed into a slot on the car’s body.
- Bolt holes: While these are a strong mounting method, the plastic surrounding the bolt hole is likely to shatter in an accident.
If any one of these are damaged, then you will need to replace them to keep your bumper in place. Thankfully, most are affordable fixes that you can do yourself. If you don’t care about aesthetics, you can also fix the problem with duct tape or zip ties rather than buying replacement parts.
Let’s look at some potential fixes for each of the most common mounting methods:
- Buy replacement clips: If your clips went missing, you can buy replacement clips assuming your mounts are good.
- DIY mounting tab kits: Mounting tabs are difficult to replace because they were molded into the bumpers and you can’t glue the broken tab onto the bumper because they will be extremely weak. However, you can find DIY kits to help you recreate a mounting tab. 3M also publishes a guide on rebuilding tabs
- Use alternative replacement parts: Bolt holes can be salvageable if you get creative. This DIY YouTuber used washers to reinforce the broken area.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Ashley Eneriz is an editor and finance writer with over 15 years of experience in a wide range of financial topics, including car loans and insurance. In editing for Jerry, Ashley aims to make all car material reader-friendly for both the new driver and car enthusiast alike. Prior to joining Jerry, Ashley was the financial deputy editor for ConsumerAffairs. Her work is featured on Forbes, Yahoo, MSN, The Hartford and more.
