What could cause this..?

[Zeffy94]

I took my car into my body shop today to have what I thought was a clip issue resolved on the front bumper. It turns out it’s not a clip issue, but rather that the mounting point is CRACKED to the point of being FUBAR. I took a pic of behind the side marker where you can see the thing looks f’d up.

The shop tech said something had to force it to crack like that. It wasn’t like that when I got the entire front bumper repaired after rear ending someone, so it had to happen recently. Could a large bump cause it, from a pothole or raised surface on the road? He said if I hit any curbs that would easily be enough to do it.

Are the Honda bumpers THAT fragile???

 

[VinRRR]

The 1st thing that comes to my mind is maybe the shop that fixed your car didn't install it properly. The 2nd thing is someone backed up and tap your bumper. Our bumper is very flexible and fragile.

 

[Zeffy94]

The 1st thing that comes to my mind is maybe the shop that fixed your car didn't install it properly. The 2nd thing is someone backed up and tap your bumper. Our bumper is very flexible and fragile.

I didn’t see any fitment issues when they returned it after repair. Looking at older photos I took the gap doesn’t appear as large as it is now. I’m looking for any evidence of damage but I cannot see any.

 

[heavyD]

How long ago was the repair? I have seen shops break clips before and re-install pretending nothing happened as something similar happened to a rear bumper cover repair I had done on a Mustang that started to sag. Chances are they got it to fit tight with the broken clip and over time the bumper started sagging.

 

[Zeffy94]

How long ago was the repair? I have seen shops break clips before and re-install pretending nothing happened as something similar happened to a rear bumper cover repair I had done on a Mustang that started to sag. Chances are they got it to fit tight with the broken clip and over time the bumper started sagging.

It was about 10 months ago, maybe 11. They had to replace the clips because the impact broke a few to begin with. I believe they had to get a new retaining bracket as well

 

[Coldpizza]

My guess is that it was partially damaged when the bumper was reinstalled (they were already breaking clips) and finally gave in after time or some sort of jarring event. I doubt a fully intact mounting point would break like that unless there was some sort of direct force on it.

 

[swah_fk7]

As somebody who's owned a body shop and has seen what some shops are capable of just to get a job out, shops have a tendency to have things break if they are not careful and will most certainly choose to hide damage by temporarily fixing it/attempting to fix it, rather than buying a new part. You're lucky they didn't just push the bumper in and have it being held in with Epoxy/Glue.

 

[bugboy32337]

The 1st thing that comes to my mind is maybe the shop that fixed your car didn't install it properly. The 2nd thing is someone backed up and tap your bumper. Our bumper is very flexible and fragile.

 

[Zeffy94]

My guess is that it was partially damaged when the bumper was reinstalled (they were already breaking clips) and finally gave in after time or some sort of jarring event. I doubt a fully intact mounting point would break like that unless there was some sort of direct force on it.

That’s what the tech told me, there had to be some sort of force to make it crack. I haven’t hit anything and there is no hint of damage anywhere that suggests someone hit me so maybe they reinstalled it incorrectly? Not sure

 

[VinRRR]

The invisible force of the wind at highway speed is no joke. Your front bumper is constantly being pushed against it on highway speed. If it wasn’t installed properly, that can happen over time also.

 

[R4T3DCTR]

I took my car into my body shop today to have what I thought was a clip issue resolved on the front bumper. It turns out it’s not a clip issue, but rather that the mounting point is CRACKED to the point of being FUBAR. I took a pic of behind the side marker where you can see the thing looks f’d up.

The shop tech said something had to force it to crack like that. It wasn’t like that when I got the entire front bumper repaired after rear ending someone, so it had to happen recently. Could a large bump cause it, from a pothole or raised surface on the road? He said if I hit any curbs that would easily be enough to do it.

Are the Honda bumpers THAT fragile???[/QUOT

Sorry to hear you are experiencing this, I had this same issue on the 10thgen coupe touring I owned before my CTR (same front bumper attachment design). I have two theories about your issue.
#1 issue is that there are little fragile clips that seat in the headlight mount that are most likely snapped off. They are very easy to break (even pulling off the bumper can cause a break). Since those clips are broken the teeth of the bumper that wraps under the headlight has nothing to attach too anymore.
#2 bumper is warped now due to the rear-end accident and wont easily flex into those clips to stay attached.

or both?

I worked at Honda MFG in Alliston, ON and this was a common issue with the 10th gen civic bumpers, even having to pull off the bumper would require new parts to correctly reattach.

Hope this helps!

 

[R4T3DCTR]

Sorry to hear you are experiencing this, I had this same issue on the 10thgen coupe touring I owned before my CTR (same front bumper attachment design). I have two theories about your issue.
#1 issue is that there are little fragile clips that seat in the headlight mount that are most likely snapped off. They are very easy to break (even pulling off the bumper can cause a break). Since those clips are broken the teeth of the bumper that wraps under the headlight has nothing to attach too anymore.
#2 bumper is warped now due to the rear-end accident and wont easily flex into those clips to stay attached.

or both?

I worked at Honda MFG in Alliston, ON and this was a common issue with the 10th gen civic bumpers, even having to pull off the bumper would require new parts to correctly reattach.

Hope this helps!

 

[Zeffy94]

somebody hit your car in a parking lot

I cannot figure out how someone could do that and leave no damage. I’ve seen even the slowest of crashes leave a visible scratch or mark.

Sorry to hear you are experiencing this, I had this same issue on the 10thgen coupe touring I owned before my CTR (same front bumper attachment design). I have two theories about your issue.
#1 issue is that there are little fragile clips that seat in the headlight mount that are most likely snapped off. They are very easy to break (even pulling off the bumper can cause a break). Since those clips are broken the teeth of the bumper that wraps under the headlight has nothing to attach too anymore.
#2 bumper is warped now due to the rear-end accident and wont easily flex into those clips to stay attached.

or both?

I worked at Honda MFG in Alliston, ON and this was a common issue with the 10th gen civic bumpers, even having to pull off the bumper would require new parts to correctly reattach.

Hope this helps!

Yes, it appears these clips are VERY weak and do not take much to snap off. It’s sad to say but my dad’s 2017 ILX, which had front end damage too, has no issues with the bumper not being properly
aligned. Overall the build quality in that car seems better than this one, despite being fundamentally the same (except the Acura is based off of the 9th gen platform).

So I wonder.. are all of Honda’s cars like this, or is this just a Civic issue? From reading this forum it seems like these panel gaps are not all created equally

 

[boosted180sx]

mine hasn't snapped back the same ever since i removed it the first time. I've been too lazy to remove it and try to make it fit better so it's gonna stay that way until i decide to remove it i guess.

 

[SCOPESYS]

Unfortunately, I predict that these issues will start to get even worse as the cars ages, and the fragile plastic parts start to get brittle from heat and UV sunlight.

Once they get old and Brittle, there will be no detaching & re-attaching without the plastic breaking, and needing repair with 2 part epoxy etc

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