| Author | Message | ||
     jon steinberg Yet to post message Username: amanda_ripanykhazova Post Number: 1 Registered: 05-2020 |
Does anyone have any experience with the hooks which hold the front bumper onto a 96 Brooklands please? I have had my car for about 8 years and have gone through about five bumpers! I understand the hooks holding the bumper to the chassis are plastic and they seem to fall off very easily indeed! Each time I get an insurance claim when someone hits me, I seem to end up with a new bumper?? But I live in a town where parking spaces are at a bit of a premium and people park by the ‘hit-and-stop’ to the front and rear method. Also, on a couple of occasions others’ hit my bumper at the side and the swipe to my car caused the hooks to come off so that a new bumper was needed (- and authorised by the other driver's insurance company). On one occasion, my garage found a supposedly good condition used bumper carefully taken off a car which had had a rear end smash and even taking that bumper off caused its plastic hooks to tear off! I know that a 5 mph bumper is designed not to show any damage when hit straight on but are these hooks really so weak that almost any slight touch can break (all of) them off? And presumably the 1996 design was some sort of development of a previous design, so someone actually changed the prior design to this new one?? (my prior ’84 Spur never had this problem) On one occasion I had the tiniest touch to a concrete marker, used to delineate the end of a parking space. It was a few inches high. My mechanic reported that it had knocked all the hooks off the bumper on that side. He said that the only solution to the problem was to send a long (obviously metal) bolt through the front of the bumper into the metal spar behind the bumper that it attaches to! Unfortunately after that, someone then hit me again and their insurance company bought me yet another new bumper! Does anyone recognise this problem please? Are these hooks plastic and IS there any way of reattaching the hooks after they have fallen off? I do know that they did use a disposable plastic radiator which is shown on the standard Mercedes service sheet as being a 100,000 mile replacement item: But can Rolls-Royce have designed a bumper so badly that it is almost a disposable piece designed to be replaced every few tens of thousands of miles? Or do they just assume that their cars aren’t going to be parked at the side of the road / driven all that much? | ||
| Omar M. Shams Grand Master Username: omar Post Number: 2036 Registered: 04-2009 |
I have never replaced the bumpers on my 96 Azure yet I have had a few contact moments both front and rear. The trick is to use silicone glue. It is as strong as the clips and indeed stronger in my opinion. | ||
| Lluís Gimeno-Fabra Frequent User Username: lluís Post Number: 443 Registered: 08-2007 |
Dear Jon, In my Continental R (which in principle is copy-paste) of a Turbo R, bumpers are attached to the body by massive aluminium elements. I never had a problem and indeed have hit various objects. Best, Lluís | ||
| jon steinberg New User Username: amanda_ripanykhazova Post Number: 2 Registered: 05-2020 |
The problem seems to be the pathetically bad design where the hooks go into a sort of spongy material behind the bumper! I dont see how any sort of adhesive would hold in that spongy material? Especially for a car of this weight or sporty characteristics. | ||
| Jon Steinberg New User Username: amanda_ripanykhazova Post Number: 6 Registered: 05-2020 |
I took my car into my garage today. I caused much mirth and hilarity! Which I suppose can only be a good thing generally? They practically keeled over with laughter at the suggestion that the plastic 'hooks' which have come out of the spongy material behind the bumper could be in any way glued back on! I'm not sure that was the ffect I wanted. But I had no comeback as I put this enquiry to the factory and they had no clue. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3713 Registered: 04-2003 |
Jon, Your experience and discovery suggests your car has been accident damaged in the past and sent to "Dodgy Brothers Repairs" for a cheap [low cost] and nasty repair. There is no way I would even contemplate your discovery being the original "ex-factory" construction of your vehicle. | ||
| Omar M. Shams Grand Master Username: omar Post Number: 2042 Registered: 04-2009 |
Dear Jon, The garage you go to is happy to keep redoing all this work and fleece you every time. Please bear in mind that Bentleys are Rolls-Royce cars are not flimsy nor were they built in someone's shed. Time you went and saw an alternative garage that has honest Joe working for them. | ||
| Jon Steinberg New User Username: amanda_ripanykhazova Post Number: 7 Registered: 05-2020 |
I'm not sure that is entirely fair. Dunno about Dodgey Brothers, - I use a particularly well known local place called Dewey, Robham & Howe and they have never actually presented ME with a bill for this bumper problem. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3714 Registered: 04-2003 |
Jon forwarded the following comment to me with permission to put it on the forum if I wished. My comment about "Dodgy Brothers Repairs" specifically related to the original repair by an unknown repairer and definitely not to the repairer now working on his vehicle. "GOOD POINT David! It has had a front end repair. It showed in the car report when I bought the car. Something to do with "HIT A BUILDING". But I checked the whole car out with a certified Rolls mechanic and there was no evidence of damage or any dodgy repair. So I bought it. Since then i have had the whole front end off numerous times and never has anyone seen any evidence of the repair. The problem seems to be with the bumper, specifically the plastic hooks set in some sort of spongy material. This bumper has now been replaced numerous times and seems to need constant replacement when driven on third world street surfaces. The street surfaces where I live in New York City are some of the worst on the face of the earth. As an example, only three months ago I hit a pot hole so deep that it knocked out some sort of ignition cut-out switches and I had to learn where they are for when it happens again! And I did mention in the OP that "On one occasion, my garage found a supposedly good condition used bumper carefully taken off a car which had had a rear end smash and even" a Rolls certified mechanic (John Palma, one of the best Rolls guys in the US) "taking that bumper off caused its plastic hooks to tear off!" Doesn't this indicate, along with others suffering the same problem, that this is a manufacturing/design defect?" My only additional comment not having any experience with this model is the design and construction of the front and rear bumper bars and their related mounts may be associated with the safety aspects of the vehicle such that the bumper bars, mounts and related components have to be replaced [not reused] in the event the vehicle has suffered front and/or rear damage to ensure vehicle occupant safety in the event of a future collision is not compromised by occupant safety features unable to function properly after prior accident involvement. Not far from where I live, there is an auto dismantler who has regular deliveries of accident-damaged late model vehicles written off by insurers as "uneconomic to repair" with damage that would have been easy to economically repair on earlier models without the occupant protection features built-in to current models. The cars are stripped for reusable parts [mainly trim, repairable removeable body panels and mechanical components] and the bodies crushed for transport to a metal recycling facility. . |
