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Spreading crack in rear SVT bumper.

X

XKontour98

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
1,358
Location
SE Minnesota
About a month or so ago I noticed there was about a 3" crack in my rear bumper. It is a vertical crack starting at the bottom of the bumper and is between the painted section of the bumper and the unpainted black section that surrounds the exhaust, passenger side.

I have no idea how it formed, it seems too low to be the result of a parking lot mishap, and I don’t recall bottoming out anywhere that would cause this sort of a problem. The only thing I can think of would be the scenario of snow/slush building up under the bumper, freezing and catching when on the pavement when I back out of the driveway. The passenger side clip that attaches to the wheel well also had been broken some where around the same time and I had temporarily zip-tied the bumper on the body so it wouldn't "flap" while driving.

I noticed yesterday that this crack has spread and is now 5-6" and creeping up. I don't have any body shop connections and don't know how to repair it myself. I am planning on removing the bumper this weekend and replacing it with my old SE bumper :blackeye: until I can get it fixed. The SVT bumper was bought used about 3 years ago in good condition and I had a reputable body shop prep and paint it. I don't think this is related to any previous damage, but you never know.

I don't have any pics just yet, but will try and post some later tonight. In the mean time does anyone have any good suggestions on how to stop it from getting worse or an easy way to repair it? I thought about drilling a hole where at the end of the crack to prevent it from continuing, but don’t really feel comfortable with the idea.

Edit: here are the pics:
PICT0055.jpg


PICT0054.jpg


PICT0056.jpg
 
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Fiberglass repair kit. Just clean the area, lay the figerglass down (on both sides), let it dry, and sand it down. If you can't paint it yourself bring it back to a repair shop.
 
damn i had the same thing happen to me this winter! i have no idea where i got it, but i have this crack on the VERY bottom of the bumper, right on the corner on the passenger side, where it curves sharply. and the same thing has happened, it was just at the bottom, but now theres a crease in the paint thats forming halfway up the bumper that wasnt there before, and the paint is cracking a bit. im so pissed cuz its a relatively new bumper from when i got rear-ended...:mad:
 
zorrex said:
damn i had the same thing happen to me this winter! i have no idea where i got it, but i have this crack on the VERY bottom of the bumper, right on the corner on the passenger side, where it curves sharply. and the same thing has happened, it was just at the bottom, but now theres a crease in the paint thats forming halfway up the bumper that wasnt there before, and the paint is cracking a bit. im so pissed cuz its a relatively new bumper from when i got rear-ended...:mad:
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I feel your pain man! Now that I think about it, my bumper was repainted about two years ago when I was rear ended and they scuffed it up! Grrrr....! So expensive $$$$
 
to be honest im just gonna freakin leave it. im sick of putting money into my car haha. i reached that whole 80k mile mark, which is when u gotta do lots of crap :-\. i had to do brakes and front suspension (soon to come is the rear) and im gonna need to get a bit of a tune-up soon, cars a tad dirty under the hood lol. unless it gets much worse im not worrying about it, even tho it pisses me off haha.
 
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if you fiberglass over the crack.. it will still crack even more.. you need to drill a small hole at the end of the crack THEN fiberglass it...
 
zorrex said:
to be honest im just gonna freakin leave it. im sick of putting money into my car haha. i reached that whole 80k mile mark, which is when u gotta do lots of crap :-\. i had to do brakes and front suspension (soon to come is the rear) and im gonna need to get a bit of a tune-up soon, cars a tad dirty under the hood lol. unless it gets much worse im not worrying about it, even tho it pisses me off haha.
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See that's just it, it IS spreading and that is really irritating! If it weren't I'd consider putting it off for later, but it's not and I don't want it to get to the point to where it is unrepairable.

I have 117K on mine currently. I know what you mean about the 80K mark. However at that point I decided to go ahead and dump the money into the car and put in all new aftermarket suspension, SVT engine upgrades, SVT kit and swapped the leather interior in. So at this point I am not ready to let the car start slipping.
 
ooo yes no way im lettin my baby go. its my first car, and i'll try my hardest to make it my last LMFAO. well, u get the idea haha. once i get the rear suspension fixed i should be home free for awhile, unless my tiny exhaust leak gets worse...i just noticed it today when i was driving next to a big fence, where the sound could bounce back...i heard the ole playin-card-in-the-spokes sound like when u ride a bike...i have a hole in my exhaust :'(. i heard theres this stuff at autozone thats pretty much just an exhaust band aid haha, its this tape that u wrap around the leak...does that crap work? lol! if so maybe i can invest in fixing my darn bumper soon :).
 
o and thanks for posting those pics....u know what my first thought that comes to mind is? DUCT TAPE THE INSIDE hahaha. its obvious that the wind resistance is pulling it apart from the bottom up. so i say line the inside with some duct tape to keep it from pulling, NO JOKE. this will hinder the crack from spreading momentarily until u find a good solution to fixing it, like with fiberglass or something. :D
 
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