Bumpers are Under-Appreciated and Ineffective In Most Cases

In theory, the under-appreciated bumper on your vehicle serves a number of purposes. It is supposed to protect other parts on your car or truck like the headlights, the cooling system, and hopefully the frame or chassis. The bumper is also supposed to protect you, the passenger, by lessening the impact in a crash. Note that we started this by saying “in theory.”

In 1982 bumper standards were lowered at the urging of car manufacturers so that car bumpers today must only pass tests based on a crash at 2.5 miles per hour. To give you an idea of how fast 2.5 miles per hour is, we are basically talking about walking speed. Your vehicle’s bumper is only guaranteed to do its designed function at that ridiculously low speed; any speed above that, or in reality any normal driving speed, will cause significant damage to most bumpers and by extension most of the parts supposedly protected by the bumper.

So what is a bumper made of? Usually your car bumper is made of plastic and reinforced by a bar made of steel or some composite material to give it some strength. The energy produced in a crash requires a material strong enough to absorb that crash energy and in most cases with modern cars, because of the reduced safety standards, the materials used to make bumpers do not do the job. That is just the plain, ugly truth.

The good news for car owners is that replacing a bumper is an incredibly simple task. Most bumpers, rear or front, are held on to the car frame by four bolts and it is a simple process of removing those bolts, taking the old bumper off, putting the new bumper on, and replacing the bolts. In terms of time, we are talking an hour max to replace most bumpers.

Finding a replacement part for most car bumpers is also an easy job. Most auto parts stores carry bumpers for all makes and models, but truly the best bet, considering how easy it is to install a bumper, is to go to a “you pull it” salvage yard for your used part. Any junk yard in America worth its salt carries replacement bumpers for most cars or can find one for you by consulting their computer inventories. When we are talking about car repair, one of the easiest car repairs for anyone to do is replacing a bumper so don’t let your lack of knowledge scare you off.