C5 (05) Estate Rear Bumper Removal / towbar fit

[onthecut]

Acquired a new, genuine towbar for my recently bought C5 Estate (facelift; 05) and silly as it sounds, couldn't readily find much info on rear bumper removal -- specifically the whereabouts of the upper retaining screws.

The underneath ones are all pretty self evident, but don't miss the two small ones that fasten through the rear wheelarch liner on the outer edge, plus the bolt with a downward facing head at the top forward edge of the bumper, also accessed in the wheelarch. The upper screws are in fact hidden behind the lower part of each rear lamp, so the lamps need to be removed for access. If you have parking sensors fitted, you will need to unplug the sensors harness at the control box in the spare wheel well and feed it, along with its grommet, outwards as the bumper is withdrawn. Although bulky, there is virtually no weight in the bumper -- the metal bit stays on the car.

The genuine towbar is a well made bit of kit and comes with all the fastenings. On the facelift, all the bolt holes into the body are there and ready. This however proved a bit of a problem with the captive threads in the chassis rails. Not having had anything in them, nine years of exposure to the elements had rusted them sufficiently that starting the bolts into them was a real issue. In the end, I ran an M10 tap up them, which combined with some oil on the bolts made for a much better job.

Mike.

[Hell Razor5543]

Well done, Mike. Next time you have to work on something that is rusted in or clogged you might want to try some Plus Gas to see if that helps. It has the description 'Dismantling Fluid' on it, and that is accurate.