bumper Fix

I would take it to a shop, even the dealer, and have it looked at. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, even if it looks good.

As far as the crushable mounts, you are correct. They are something like shock absorbers, although (for some unknown to me reason) they don't bounce back. Common fix? Get a chain and find a strong tree, wrap the chain around the tree and then attach to the bumper and yank them back out again. You're on your own on this; BE CAREFUL you don't pull the bumper right off the car!!!

"bobQ" wrote in news:r1zve.3962$4M1.2505@trnddc07:

Not these days. Most cars these days have an EPS ("Styrofoam") insert a couple of inches thick between the bumper skin and the steel reinforcing bar. It's glued to the back of the skin. The rebar is normally solidly bolted to the body.

The old-style "crushable mounts" went out with exposed chromed-steel bumpers.

The foam crushes, yes. It normally breaks up, as well. You must buy a whole new bumper skin, since you cannot buy the foam by itself. And then the new skin will have to be painted and installed.

If the damage is that hard to notice, just leave it alone. It ain't worth worrying about.

Or a rotting tree down on your car =)

Ya otta sell this one to Vonnage for one of their 'dumb' commercials!

On the Avalon, the backing, foam and skin are separate parts. Look under the bumper and you will see a bunch of bolts. Remove the bolts to remove the skin and expose the foam.

"Ray O" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

That's good to know. So the foam actually has a separate part number?