All you need to know about B7 front bumper grilles, well allmost all.

[Charlie Farley]

Here is the parts database link.
https://audi.7zap.com/en/rdw/

choose your model/variant/year and then it will give you options which will include Bodywork.

 

[Charlie Farley]

You are not alone chap, many cab owners have done the swap for various reasons, it's not difficult just ensure you have all the parts before you do the swap.
Also a word of caution with headlamp wash, after almost 12 years or so some of the pipework and plastic bits would have become brittle so treat them with a bit of care to prevent any umwanted breakages etc.

 

[Crusoe80]

Hi Rob, so armed with confidence from all your replies I’ve now removed the bumper in prep for sourcing a replacement. Photo below on first look thought this bumper support was bent and needed replacement but now see this is the design - just one of the supports broken on right side which I guess I can easily replace and rivet in ?
Question - are all the bumper supports the same and hence fitting connections into the bumper match up as looking on eBay there seem to be different styles of bumper supports ?

 

[Charlie Farley]

part number is :8E0 807 381 C

they are a common failure part, either through impact damage or they just seize up.

 

[Crusoe80]

Hi all, having removed the bumper following a very light front end bump of my A4 B7 2007 3.0 Cabriolet Quattro I can now see I need to replace the lock carrier/slam panel. Looking at the parts database it does look to be different to other A4 B7 lock carriers/slam panels e.g. from 2.0 Tdi but an A4 B6 from a 3.0 V6 looks very similar. Anyone know ? Thanks

 

[Crusoe80]

I just thought I'd add to the bumper info.
If anyone is contemplating changing their front bumper (say if they have an s-line cab with the standard non-s-line bumper) to the s4/s-line shape and they have a 3.0 v6 tdi then they will have to cut the existing intercooler scoops to fit the new s4/s-line bumper as they are not an exact swap without the scoop modification.
Many s-line bumpers only have one open intercooler scoop.
Hope that helps someone.

Hi Sturat - so glad I found your post as it confirmed I wasnt going insane. Have changed my non s-line bumper on a 3.0 Cabriolet quattro due to a small crash, offered up the newly painted bumper as the final finish and couldn't work out why it wasnt fitting. took off the scoops and it did fit so was trawling through to see if different scoops existed but will now get my handy stanley knife out for some surgery !

 

[Dazza124]

sline = s4 which RS4 works with so should be good. I done the RS4 grille on mine there and all went fine.

So the rs4 grille goes straight onto the b7 s line

 

[Charlie Farley]

It does indeedy.

 

[Dazza124]

Just gotta find one lol how much are they new

 

[Charlie Farley]

from audi probably £500 upwards + vat

two on fleabay from £600 upwards aswell.

 

[Charlie Farley]

One of audi's many money making parts.

 

[sidibear]

2008 A4 B7 S-Line Avant
Quick question regarding the top mount brackets for the front bumper, the ones under the bonnet on the front panel. One each side and one in the middle. My bumper is hanging down a bit sad with large gappage detail between top of grille and bonnet, so I went to see if I could adjust it.
It seems like a local Audi dealer has snapped the bolts off in the each side brackets, and not sure what is going on with the middle one, its just a big hole, let not beat about the bush, it was Audi Watery lane, no wonder it now a ceramic tile place.
Upon looking at what is left of the bolts they seem to be inside a sleeve, looks to have a star type socket finish to it if you know what I mean.
So, questions being. bearing in mind I am doing this on my own.
Can I change just the star socket sleevy looking thing or do I need the complete bracket?
If its a complete bracket change, would it be easier to drill out the snapped bits than change the brackets?
Can I just loosen off the bolts inside the wheel wells to get more access or does the bumper need to come off?

 

[Charlie Farley]

Is this the part you are having issues with?

 

[i3oricua]

It's much easier if you take off the bumper. Those star bolts or screws are called Torx so you'll need torx bits to take them off. The bumper is fairly easy to take off, maybe not the first time if you've never done it but you'll a 10mm socket and a long extension or really skinny hands and various torx bits to remove the bumper. Then you'll have access to those bumper riser/adjuster things.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Charlie Farley]

this part comes as one assembly , you can buy the whole part and just replace the screw sections as they are the problem part without the need to drill out the outer housing .

 

[Charlie Farley]

8E0 807 381 C

 

[sidibear]

Is this the part you are having issues with?

View attachment 208176

Very close, its not the bumper rising bit, its the bracket right at the top of your photo next to the headlight.

 

[Charlie Farley]

The top mounting bolts are just fixing and hold the bumper in place, they have no control over the height of the bumper, the height is controlled by the parts mentioned.
You may have two issues now then.
1) your bumper position adjusters are out of adjustment and possibly seized.
2) the bumper top securing bolts would appear to have been broken so you have a loose bumper aswell.

 

[Charlie Farley]

I would say , the last place that removed the bumper tried to adjust the height using just the fixing bolts, not the adjusters or found the adjusters were not moving .
tried to use the top fixings which will never work ,overtightened them with the end result you have now.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Parts diagram doesnt list replacement parts for the top fixings , only a new replacement assembly.
you are most probably looking at a DIY repair with parts you source yourself.

Part 2

 

[sidibear]

This what I have. Can I just remove and drill out, or change the metal sleeve on the top brackets or is it a complete new bracket ?

 

[Charlie Farley]

You could drill it out and fit a new bolt, like i say that is the top fixing point, it does'nt control the height , it may give some fine adjustment forwards and backwards but that's it.
If your bumper was sitting correctly in the adjusters and adjusted to the correct level then even with the bolt missing it would still be sitting at allmost the correct level, judging by your pics it's hanging down a fair bit which does suggest the bumper is not sitting on the adjuster properly or if it is , it's not wound up enough which is why i said it maybe seized.
If i removed the same bolts from my bumper the height does'nt change at all , i can make forward and backward fine adjustment but the gap is still correct.

 

[Charlie Farley]

if you look at the gap at the base of the headlamp cover in your pic, thats a big gap, if your bumper was sitting correctly on the support/adjusters that would'nt be there, fine tuning of the forward and backward position would be controlled by tightening those bolts that have broken .

 

[sidibear]

I will get some new adjusters anyway in case they are seized, just want to make sure the bumper doesn't fall off at the moment.

 

[sidibear]

Any idea how the top brackets are to take of with the bumper on but loosened?

 

[Charlie Farley]

It's only being held on at the moment by 4 fixings , 2 either side of the lower outer edges of the bumper by the wheel arch so not really ideal.

The bumper itself is held by those 4 fixings at the wheel arches and those 2 top bolts and that's it, the grille is bolted into the bumper apperture and then its the top mounts that hold the combined assembly to the car at the top, once you have lost the top securing points the bumper is free to move around to a more or lesser degree depending on the support/adjusters.

 

[sidibear]

That is why I am asking about the top fixing points, I need to get them sorted out. Can the top brackets be removed with the bumper still on the car or does it all have to come off?

 

[Charlie Farley]

Depends on how much forward movement there is ,you maybe able to pull the bumper forward just enough to drill out the retainers, if you cant you will need to undo the 4 side fixings etc and pull the bumper forward more to get at the retainers.
I've not had issues with them so cant say for sure how the retainers are fixed into the carrier, they may push out in which case you can remove them and do whats needed to reuse them, until you can get any kind of acess to them its hard to say, see if you can get some forward movement first to get better access to them, failing that it will be a more involved part bumper removal i'm afraid.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Worse case you could fix the bumper in place so you have the retainer central in the bumper hole , then try to drill it out carefully, may work if you're lucky.

 

[Charlie Farley]

That is why I am asking about the top fixing points, I need to get them sorted out. Can the top brackets be removed with the bumper still on the car or does it all have to come off?

The top fixing mounts are an integral part of the front carrier assembly , the retainers fit into the carrier , how i cant say as i've not had to work on them specifically, but i would assume they are either a push fit or similar, maybe integrated into the moulding.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Hang fire chap, maybe another solution, i'll be back in a mo.

 

[Charlie Farley]

Just been out to look at mine, top mounts are bolted to the carrier so you can unbolt them to fix them or replace them.
i was looking at a different carrier position...

here,
8E0 805 363
8E0 805 364

 

[Charlie Farley]

I was thinking it was the upper mount hole.
Anway, you will get to the top two bolts but the lower maybe a struggle with the bumper in place.

 

[i3oricua]

You'll need to remove the bumper or be willing to pull on it really hard and hope you don't break anything. The reason I say this is because if the pic below. The red arrow is probably where they mounted the support tab from the bumper, however the blue arrow is where it needs to be. You can see there's a small gap there where you should slide the bumper tab into.

You can take the bumper from the top and pull on it, I would loosen the headlight assembly's to allow more flexibility but again you do risk cracking or breaking something.

Let me know if you can't see the pic below.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[i3oricua]

You can go out and look behind the bumper from up top and verify if that's the case. If you fix that fitment then it should make a majority of your sagging bumper go away.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Charlie Farley]

Agreed Edgar, if he can address the bumper support/adjuster issues that will make a massive improvement to the sagging , i think it will still be a bumper off job to get the top mounts off to resolve the sheared bolts.

 

[i3oricua]

Agreed Edgar, if he can address the bumper support/adjuster issues that will make a massive improvement to the sagging , i think it will still be a bumper off job to get the top mounts off to resolve the sheared bolts.

Yup. Definitely agree that he probably will need to go bumper off to get the new bolt in. Maybe not out because he can probably do that from the top through the existing hole, but the new one will not go back in the same way. The whole process is easier with bumper off though, it's just a pain if you've never done it before. Us veterans can probably get ours off in 5-10 minutes. First timers might take 30+ minutes. Maybe an hour.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[sidibear]

Absolutely perfect guys, thank you so much, its much appreciated. The bumper has been off in the past a few times for cambelts etc, so noting should be stuck. It is however, the first time I have done it myself.

 

[Charlie Farley]

There are two ways of removing the bumper and will all be down to your personal preference.

If its the first time you are attempting this just something to keep in mind and only really relavant if you have headlamp wash.

Just be a bit carefull when removing the bumper as the headlamp washer pipework and other small plastic parts do tend to become very brittle , so to avoid any costly breakages maybe leave it all intact and just move the bumper to one side.

Bumper can be removed without too many probs, either use the wheels on method and fight with the wheel arch liner or wheels off and much more managable method with fighting the wheel arch liner etc.

take your pic.

I use the wheels off method just as it less hassle.

 

[HOGG]

I do wheels turned method lol

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk