Removal of front bumper to fit larger Intercooler/Headlights

write here goes people, here is my atempt at doing a guide for removing the front bumper to install a bigger intercooler or remove the head lights.

this took me around 1hr 30mins to do from undoing the first screw to doing the last one up again and fitting LED side light bulbs, but i have removed it b4 so i may have an advantage over most, but i would say if your doing it for the first time allow around 3hrs to do the job. you can do this whole job without the aid of a jack or stands, but by all means use if it helps you.

ok here we go


1. under both of your front wheel arches are 2 star drive screw that need to be removed the hold the inner plastic to the wheel arch, you need to turn you wheels full lock and undo one side then turn the wheel the other way and undo the other 2, one srew is at the top and the other is at the bottom ( see pic below ) wen all 4 screws are off put your wheels back to the centre.


2. under the front of the bumper on the underside of the car is a big plastic cover that is fixed to the front lip of the bumper and is held in place by 3 x 10mm bolts ( see pic below ) you need to take these out and also remove another 2 x 10mm bolts that hold up the other little cover that its connected to, these 2 bolts are just behind the 3 others located at the sides, have a feel around and you find them easy enough. so in total you should have removed 5 x 10mm bolts.


3. back under the bonnet you will see quite a few plastic screw type fixings (see pic below )

you need to remove all of these fixings untill you can remove the 3 bits of plastic they were holding down in place,
removing the screws is quite simple, you get a screw driver turn the screw head until it just pops up a little bit, then you need to get a pair of long nose pliers ( see pic below )

pop them all out, if your care full they should be able to remove them all with out breaking any.then you should be left with the top of the bumper fixings showing.


4. now you should see the same fixings again hold ing the top of the bumper in place, remove these as you did the others. ( see below )


5.there are a couple of clips that are still holding the bumper in place, ( see pics below )


you cant really see these untill the bumper is of but you need to free these of the bump will not come off. so,

go round to the wheel arch and grab the front bumper just under the head light and pull it away from the car ( see pic below )


then go back to the front and put your fingers inside the to black grills at the top and give it a good tug, if you feel you can get to the clips behind the bumper by the head lights ( as below )then do so and try to free the clips as it does make it easier to remove the whole bumper. if not give it a good tug and it will come loose. ( see pic below ) but do not let it drop as there are two things you need to disconnect befor you the bumper is totaly free of the car.


6. wen you have the bumper in the stage above you need to disconnect the power to your fog lights which is located on the right hand side on the back of the bump. ( see pic below )


on the left hand side you need to disconnet the washer bottle from you head light washers, ( see pic below ), there are 2 x joiners in the pipes, you need to disconnect these so you can loop them together to stop the water pissing out.

then the bumper should now be free to remove and take away from the car.



7.now to get to the jubilee clips holding on the intercooler you need to remove some plastic covers that hiding the jubilee clips on both sides (see pic below)
these need to be taken out completely to get to the heads on the jubilee clips and also the new intercooler will not fit properly as i found out.
they cdo come out quite easy , just a good tug again is needed and they will come loose,




8. with a screw driver undo the the jubilee holding the pipe to the intercooler on the top right first, ( see pic below )if its makes life a bit easier lift the cooler out of the brackets it sits in so you can get the to jubilees a bit easier


then with a 7mm spanner you will need to undo the other jubilee that is at the bottom right, ( see pic below ) this one is a pain as there is not much room and takes abit of time to undo but you will get there in the end.


now all that is left is to just wiggle the the pipes away from the intercooler, these can be tight but if you just keep going maybe put some WD40 round the pipes they will eventually come of and the intercooler should just come away from the car.


9. now fitting the new intercooler is real simple, spray some WD40 into the open ended pipes and fit the new cooler, start by fitting the right side first but dont do it up then fit the left side and then do up the jubilees and hook it back onto the bracket supports ( see pic below )





10. now all that is left is to reconnect your fog lights and the washer bottle wen you are ready to re fit the bumper and lift it back into place and refit it.

refitting should be a peice of cake, you just do the reversal of all of the above.

11. here is the finished article wen all is put back,




OR I IF YOU WISH TO REMOVE YOU HEAD LIGHTS AND NOT THE INTERCOOLER THEN FOLLOW THIS GUIDE BELOW.

1. you will still need to follow all of the above guides from 1-6 as you still need to remove the bumper in order to remove the head lights.

2 wen 1-6 is complete there are 3 large star screws holding each head light in place.
ther is 1 on the top and 2 on the underside of the lamp. ( seee pics below )





wen these 3 screws are removed you will need to disconnect the power supply to the head lamps ( see pics below ) and the lamp will be free from the car. repaet process for the other side.
if you have XENONS im not sure if the will be the same instructions to follow sso please take not of this as i only have the standard head lights.





3. now the lamps are free to change any bulbs you please.

4. to refit the lamps again follow the instructions above but in reverse



i realy do hope this guide helps you all to remove the front bumper and change your intercoolers or even to remove your headlamps or just to work on the car with the bumper off.

if you have any further questions on any of the above or you get into trouble please let me know and i will help out where i can.

good luck all

ANDY BASSETT.