Xantia Front bumper removal

[RichardW]

How much of a PITA is getting the front bumper off?

I had an 'interesting' moment this morning, when I ran into a load of hefty plastic drain pipes - like 6" diameter / 4m long jobbies . They had obviously fallen off the back of a lorry, and were across my side of the road - the cars that were stopped on the other side gave me a hint and I had lifted off, but by the time I saw the (black) pipes I was only a few metres away and still doing 50mph Damage seems to be limited to having broken both fog lights off their mounts (but not the glass in either ) and a crack in the lower valance - Rad and IC look OK, and there are just a few scratches on the bottom of the fans. Don't know if I will be able to re-mount the fogs, depending on what's broken I suppose. Phoned the Police later on, but surprisingly no one had admitted to losing a load of drain pipes Ho hum another job for the weekend....

[jgra1]

Rich.. not too bad...

two 10 mm bolts, into each top 'side' of bumper.. inner wheel arch may need to be partially removed.. these bolts always rust.. they go into capsulated nut things, so a couple of those on standby is a good idea..

two well hidden 13mm bolts are the main holders.. they scrwe into some plastig expanding jobbies, think rawlplugs .. you can loosen these but not take them fully out..

2 or 3 long extensions and the socket should reach them.. they are near the front chassis terminations I think...
may need to remove washer bottle.

indicators out, and that will help with the aforementioned 10mm bolts possibly..
there could be a couple of 10mm under the headlamps... these are fairly easy..

John
i am in a rush so may ahve forgotten something..

[CitroJim]

John, that sounds more like the rear bumper...

My take is this: Three 10mm bolts along the lower part of the skirt, two 13mm bolts on the sides accessed from behind the wing mud-shields, the ones with the captive nuts. A ratchet spanner is your friend for these.

Remove the fan guard piece held by two poppers and two Torx, then remove the trim strips below the headlights by removing the indicators to give sight of the Torx screws on the ends and the white U clips securing their other ends.

Gently pull the bumper forward, disconnect the headlight washer pipe at the quick-disconnect union and disconnect the foglight connector.

[Estately]

There is also a Torq screw (T10 ?) fitted upward vertically into the wing at the very tip at each end of the bumper and threads into a small plastic insert.

Easily missed but could deform the edge of the wing if the bumper is pulled or twisted before they are removed.

The above relates to a 2000 HDi 90bhp - the bolts behind the inner wheel arch guard are 10mm on mine and I think take longer to extract than all the rest.

Hope that helps.

[DickieG]

There is also a Torq screw (T10 ?) fitted upward vertically into the wing at the very tip at each end of the bumper and threads into a small plastic insert.

IIRC it's a Torx 20 so the same size as the majority of self tappers on Xantia's.

[addo]

Should have taken the pipes home. They're probably worth more than the repair cost, if Fleabayed.

[RichardW]

Cheers guys - a job for tomorrow...

The pipes were a bit bent after I had run them over addo - but they weren't there this evening as far as I could see!

[jgra1]

the main two holders are definately 13 mm bolts, deep in the front of the car
I should know, I have removed 1 vauxhall and something else with the xanty

[RichardW]

Got it off this pm - deffo no 13mm on this Mk2 - just the 10mm from the inner wings, the three across the bottom, and the Torx into the bottom of the wing. Not really necessary to take the indicators out, just unclip the inner end of the headlight trim end ease it forward - makes enough room to get the lip out from under it.

Both fog lights are smashed off all three of their mounts, but damage otherwise pretty superficial - just a few cracks. Now have full on rat look with the fog apertures taped up with duct tape. At least the car is silver

Anyone got any spare fogs they want to get rid of...

[addo]

Can't plastic weld the froglights back together? I've had plenty of stuff repaired this way. A lot of the bumper places do it; Euro headlights are a good sideline due to high replacement cost and relative repairability

[jgra1]

:O



ok so the plastic pegs sticking out the front? maybe the bumper just pushes over them etc? I thought they expanded to hold the bumper on

[addo]

On mine, the "pegs" just jam into the chassis horns.

[jgra1]

ahh,, i remeber two jamming pegs, moulded onto the inner bumper, and two chassis pegs that stick out? one set are cuboid and the other almost cylindrical... i really hope i am not making this up