Anyone fitted a post-facelift front bumper to a 98.5 or earlier A4?

[Nessy]

Is it a straight swap? Are there any issues with the different headlamps on the earlier car?
In the quest for (bumper mounted) front fogs am beginning to think it may be easier to fit a facelift bumper complete with all lamps and brackets etc than try and cobble together brackets to fit fogs to my existing bumper......

Cheers

Paul

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[Broken Byzan]

The front mount is the same, you will need the wing mounts though, i am in progress of purchasing some as i type as i have a facelift bumper and votex lip to go on soon.

The mounts are around a tenner each and screw to the wings for the bumper to clip to

HTH

 

[jcb]

I have a 99 A4 avant sport, it has fogs.
similar question:

I also have an s4 bumper from the same year but it doesn't have any metal work on it, will the bumper bar and brackets be a straight swap you think?
The rest of the bumper matches up fine, but I have never taken the front one off!

 

[Nessy]

[ QUOTE ]
The front mount is the same, you will need the wing mounts though, i am in progress of purchasing some as i type as i have a facelift bumper and votex lip to go on soon.

The mounts are around a tenner each and screw to the wings for the bumper to clip to

HTH

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats a great help, thanks for the info /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.
As I don't intend to do the swap until I source a replacement bumper etc (probably in the Spring), perhaps I can draw on your experiences once you've done yours?

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Broken Byzan]

no probs matey, i will be fittin it all in the new year, got to get it all painted first

PS i am not too far away either, i am in south wales Newport

 

[Nessy]

Well, a bit earlier than expected, have managed to acquire a complete front bumper from a 2000 A4 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif .
Now giving some attention as to how it will be wired up......
Anyone know if factory wiring for front fogs is installed in my non-foglight equipped car?
At the moment am contemplating using a remote-control switching method of getting the fogs to work, but would rather have it wired-up factory style if its practicable....

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[Nessy]

Well, haven't had a very good time today.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Managed to get the old bumper off without too much trouble, then found that the holes for the later wing mounts are in a different place to the hole location for the earlier mounts....
Only 1 screw would line up;and the whole mount was totally unstable using just the one.....
As the later mount is much taller than the earlier one, the lowermost hole on the later bracket has nothing but thin air to connect it to......
There may be a way to get the later bracket to fit, (though only 2 holes max can be used) by re-drilling one of the locating holes on the earlier wing with a new captive nut insert; but it wont be easy as on the nearside the washer fluid bottle is right behind this panel.
Its not possible to use the earlier wing mount on the later bumper as the later bumper has totally different locating holes/slots.
So, old bumper went back on again, and my living room floor has a nice shiny Ming Blue floor decoration for the forseeable.......

 

[Broken Byzan]

Darn, did the two front bolts line up ok though?

I ahve both the front and rear being srpayed by the end of the month, so i would like to have an idea what is needed by then,lol

I checked with a breaker and theya have the mounts and i was supposed to collect them before xmas, just kinda didnt get around to it

 

[Nessy]

Here's a pic of the earlier nearside bumper mount still screwed to the wing;

And here is the later nearside mount;dont let the photos fool you, it is easily 3 x the height of the earlier mount;

(the screw holes in question are labelled 1,2 and 3, don't be confused by the hex-head bolts in the above pic, they allow the length of the later mount to be altered, as unlike the earlier item this later mount is made of 2 pieces of plastic bolted togther)

The trouble with trying to screw the later mount to the car using just one screw hole is knowing whether the bracket is in the right place?
I do have an idea though of fitting the wing brackets to the bumper (they just clip-in) and then offering the whole bumper up to the car; hopefully there will be enough clearance in the wheel arch to get a self-tapper or two into the wing bracket.
It won't be as secure as the factory,but it would be the best of a bad lot.....

 

[Broken Byzan]

ahhhh!! so i need to drill a few extra holes and may need to make an extra support bracket, great pic worth a thousand words

 

[Nessy]

Well, had a better day today than yesterday .
Managed to finish the job, and am very happy with the way it worked out.
Ended up using the later wing mount, using only 1 of the screw holes, the one nearest the front edge of the car, in conjuction with a tube of no-nails adhesive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif .
It is very secure, I didn't want to start drilling any holes in the bodywork.
A tiny bit of trimming to the wheel arch liner is needed to make the bumper fit properly,also be aware that the lip spoiler part of the bumper is different on the facelift models.
I had hoped to use the earlier lip part on my facelift bumper (as my car is a TDi there are more holes for air flow in it) but had to use the facelift one as the earlier one would not clip into the facelift bumper....
Whilst its not the best pic here's what the finished result looks like;

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[Broken Byzan]

That looks very good, I am ok with the bottom spoiler as my 99.5 bumper has the Votex lip on it, so that all good. I will use Sikaflex to stick it as no more nails isnt water resistant AFAIK,lol

Thanks for all the info so far

 

[rasA4]

nessy looks good, are you going to install the facelift one piece headlights?

 

[Nessy]

[ QUOTE ]
nessy looks good, are you going to install the facelift one piece headlights?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not for a good while (if ever)....only recently fitted PIAA headlamp bulbs which weren't cheap, as they're H4 they wouldn't be useable with the facelift or the angel-eye types available,so to change headlamps would be a bit too extravagant IMHO.....

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