Rearended, minimum visible damage

[dave g]

:confused:I got hit pretty solid by a girl who let her foot off the brake. I'm guessing she hit the gas too. It felt like the rear caved in but all I got was a couple visible scratches that I'm not concerned with in light of the prior condition of the bumper. The tabs are intact and the bumper is still lined up. However, it was hard enough that I'm concerned with the structure underneath. I'm not familiar with the absorber and reinforcements, mounts, etc. How sturdy are they? I'm considering having the bumper pulled off to have a look. Is this something I can do myself in short order without any other disassembly? It looks like the typical screw/push fasteners holding it on. Any tricks to it?

[Leke]

Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. Low speed shunt while we were both stomping on the brakes. I still pulled the bumper off, mainly out of curiosity.

 

There's 4 10mm bolts that hold the sides of the bumper on. Two are accessible through the trunk, underneath the liner. The other two are accessible through your rear wheel well - just push the plastic liner out of the way to get to it. There's also 6 bumper clips that you need to remove - 4 at the rear of the bumper and 1 on each side of the bumper closest to your tire. After that, the bumper comes right off.

 

The beam and mounting brackets are pretty solid, mainly due to our crash laws. I highly doubt that there's any real damage to the structure if it was a low speed impact.

 

Here's a shot of what they look like if you're curious.

http://gallery.me.com/leke.akinyele/100119/IMG_1116/web.jpg?ver=13399813790001

[canadianelbow]

I have seen instances where the bumper reinforcement seems to have survived, but the rear body panel sustained damage. Check it from frame rail out........... energy travels.