Macroware Technology

Welcome Portlet


Welcome to Macroware Technology Blog.

The purposes of this engineering blog:

- Share knowledge
- Learn
- Have fun
- Document what I was doing / thinking

Search Box

 

Private Area

Mailing List

Engineering Education

Engineering Organizations

Professional Career Networking Groups

Electronics Hobby

Trade Publications

2009 Toyota Sienna Front Bumper Removal

posted Friday, 3 July 2009

We had a couple of very minor fendor benders with our car over the past couple of weeks.  There is almost no damage, except for some minor dimples on the front bumper.  I thought maybe I could fix it to the good enough point so I decided to try to remove the front bumper and manipulate the plastic back a little.  If you are similar to me (a fairly handy engineering minded person, but not an auto mechanic), let me save you a few hours of time with the knowledge that I couldn't get it off and got stuck.  If you are an auto mechanic type, and how to get past where I got stuck, please post a comment with that info.  Anyhow here's what I managed to do:

 

  1. There are 8 screws under the front of the car that hold the bumper to another black plastic piece.  These can be removed with a 10mm socket very easily 
  2. There are 5 two piece plastic clip pieces at the top of the bumper under the hood that hold the bumper to the metal frame and to another plastic piece.  These can be removed by popping up the flat screw like piece showing slightly and then pulling the whole clip out.  They come out pretty easy - don't force!
  3. The sides of the bumper is held to the same plastic pieces underneath.  On each side, there is 1 screw that can be easily removed with a philips screwdriver.  There are also two weird single piece plast clips that have a flat head screw like head.  The flat head slot is in the vertical orientation.  Turn it to the horizontal orientation.  Then you should be able to pull it out part way.  After it is out part way you need to twist it to pull it out the rest of the way.
  4. At this point another plastic piece is held to the bumper on each side of the car underneath with a square white clip.  You have to wiggle your hands with a pair of pliers up under these plastic pieces to squeeze that clip and push it out the bottom - this is tricky.
  5. It is convenient although not 100% necessary to remove another one of these square white clips on each side that holds the black plastic piece to the metal frame of the car - this allows you to push/bend that plastic piece out of the way easier.
  6. At this point the black plastic piece that was clipped to the bumper on the sides where you removed clips on step 3 is still holding the bumper.  You need to slide it out to disengage it from the bumper.  This takes a little bit of forcing.

At this point I got stuck.  The bumper was pretty free, except it was still held at the top left and right.  I tried to remove the headlight to see what was holding it.  I think there are at least 4 screws holding the headlight in.  Two of them are obvious and easily accessible under the hood.  The third is kind of accessible if you pull back on the bumper a little bit.  The headlight is still not free after removing these and I could see a fourth screw that there was no way to get at with the bumper still on.

In looking in from the top with the hood open I was able to see a screw that was attaching the bumper to the metal frame.  I was able to get my hand up to this screw from underneath.  I believe it is a philips head screw with a 10 mm hex head also.  There is no room to fit a right angle screwdriver in to where it is to remove the screw.  I also tried to get a wrench on it, but the screw head is surrounded by a square bracket that makes getting a wrench on it impossible.  I don't see how a socket would fit on it if the lower profile right angle screwdriver could not fit.  What bothers me about this is that I'm not sure I see how this screw is put in for assembly.  The only thing I can think of is that the bumper gets screwed to the metal piece and then the entire thing gets attached to the rest of the car.  I think the wheels would have to be removed to have access to attaching this metal piece.

Even after getting the bumper free, there are a lot of cable assemblies attached to it (lights, sensors, etc.).  I was hoping I would be able to pull the bumper slightly away from the car and not have the remove all this stuff, but that might be pretty unrealistic.

Again if you know how to get past where I got stuck, please post a comment.  We'll probably be taking this to a body shop now.  Any thoughts on how much a new bumper should cost?  Or maybe they can get it to the good enough state without full replacement.