A6 Front Bumper incident

[meinaudiauto]

Hi all,

I had an incident with my front bumper the other day. Parked at work in the morning and did not notice that my front went on to the curb.
backing out in the evening the front got stuck at the curb and some of the fasteners broke loose. See pictures..

P.S.: I do still have the headlight spray cap, just couldn't attach i the way it is sitting now.

Now, the question is:

• Should I take the bumper off, following the Bentley instructions and see if I can reattach it?
  Possible drawbacks:
  
  • Bumper might be warped
  • Might not be able to redo the fasteners by myself
• Should I have a body shop look at it?
  Possible drawbacks:
  
  • Might be expensive

Anybody have any experience?

[OGBULLYLOCDAWG]

Ouch..

I think there's damage to couple of parts in that carnage:

• Bumper
• drivers side fender where the bumper bolts go through appears to be ripped out.
• Bumper shock(s) - bent or torn off
• Bumper guide(s) - possible that the plastic tabs when the 3 holes on the bumper sits on are snapped off

[OGBULLYLOCDAWG]

Might as well just remove it yourself if you have the space to work on it. Bumper removal is not that difficult at all.

Here's a DIY video courtesy of Bentley:


You can follow that up to the 3:00min mark for removal instructions. There's obviously a couple of steps that aren't necessary for you in that condition.

[audi_nicoya209]

Hi all,

I had an incident with my front bumper the other day. Parked at work in the morning and did not notice that my front went on to the curb.
backing out in the evening the front got stuck at the curb and some of the fasteners broke loose. See pictures..

P.S.: I do still have the headlight spray cap, just couldn't attach i the way it is sitting now.

Now, the question is:

• Should I take the bumper off, following the Bentley instructions and see if I can reattach it?
  Possible drawbacks:
  
  • Bumper might be warped
  • Might not be able to redo the fasteners by myself
• Should I have a body shop look at it?
  Possible drawbacks:
  
  • Might be expensive

Anybody have any experience?

that.....................made me cringe just seeing it. But ya see I'm goin to show this to everyone that gives me garbage for always parking mine kinda far from the curb or those concrete block thingys in parking spots. I'm gonna be like "see see this is why I park far lol" but on another note let us know how it goes

[Ballzo]

When I'm driving around town and see an a6, I always look to see if they have this. I bet 90% of the ones I see have damage similar to this from getting stuck in parking lots.

Gots to be real, real careful.

[norcal22]

I had the exact same thing happen with my bumper. Same color car and everything :( sorry man, know it's frustrating.

[19dabeast85]

Man that sucks. I almost had this happen the other day. Parked just fine but evidently the car leveled itself out while at the restaurant and settled onto the curb. Thankfully I heard it scrape a tiny bit and quit moving. Raised to level 3 and was off of it.

I fixed similar damage due to hitting a deer. Sourced most of my parts off ebay. There are a tone of parts in there likely damaged. You'll just have to pull apart and check everything.

[A6Rick]

Honestly your bumper is finished. I'd say source a front bumper and bumper shock/guide either from a scrap yard or aftermarket. Swap your oem parts to the new one and just pay a bodyshop to color match your bumper. You should be all set, if budget is a problem you can simply follow the vid diy OGBULLYLOCDAWG provided and replace the parts n put the bumper on yourself. That's what I'd do. Good luck

[Scotty@Advanced]

I've seen a few cars totalled because of this. I've heard of Audi paying for the damage once (I don't know the circumstances however). If you have full coverage insurance should take care of it less a deductible but beware they might total the car.

[jmgraham78]

scrap it, get an AR, and then when this happens again to you simply raise the level to 4 and never have this problem.

[MobsTTA]

wife does this ALL THE TIME with the B6 Avant. I put the lower unpainted part of the bumper in the way back and take it to the indy for what we've termed is a "bumper adjustment". Of course the b6 is different and it has the 2 piece bumper which prevent the carnage described above. The ability to rip off the lower section prevents major damage to the pieces damaged above

[meinaudiauto]

OP here:

Based on not having much time off at the moment I went to a couple of collision shops to get some feedback. One initially said they could do it and make it look like new. After scheduling debakels (on their side) the told me that with this kind of bumper I really need to get a new one.
So I went to another shop, which fixed it to what it looks like now. Basically a ghetto fix with zip-ties and a screw into the bumper (I know, a screw..).
It doesn't look like a total wreck anymore and it doesn't catch on every single speed bump/hump.

Given the fact that it is approaching 200000 miles and will soon be replaced/used as a beater (see here)that works for me for the moment.

Oh yeah, I did restore the headlights between original post and now. Don't get me wrong, the car does receive car and loving :)