1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Below is an email I sent to Brian to help him change his bumper. I thought it might be useful to others on the board.
Brian,
I've heard that the Haynes manual isn't particularly instructive on removing the rear bumper on a 9000 CD.
I figured it out last night by trial and error.
The bumper is held in place by 4 bolts and two torx screws. If you look under the bumper at the points where bumper wraps around the fender you'll see a torx screw on either end that needs to be removed.
The harder part is getting access to the four bolts. The rubber/plastic part of the bumper is actually mounted onto a metal beam that runs along 2/3 the length of the bumper. That beam has two bolts on each end that are used to attach the bumper to the back of the car. These bolts are perpendicular to the bumper. You access the bolts from the trunk.
With the trunk open you first have to remove the "skid guard" which is the plastic protector that runs along the lip of the trunk separating the inside carpeted part of the trunk from the bumper. There are several torx screws to remove here, and to get access to some of the screws you might find it easier to remove the tail light panels from the inside, as those panels sit on top of the ends of the skid guard.
Once you've removed the skid guard, pull back the trunk carpet 6 inches to reveal four white plastic covers on the floor of trunk, 2 on either side of the trunk, just below where you access the tail lights from inside the trunk. If you remove the plastic cover closer to the tail light on each side side you'll reveal a well that houses the bolts that hold the bumper onto the car.
I spent forever trying to get the nuts off the bolts using a pair of pliers. Not too easy as it's an odd angle and the top bolt hinders your access to the bottom one. After a midnight trip to the 24 hour home depot I found removing the nuts to be a piece of cake using a deep socket (17mm I believe) with a socket wrench.
Once all four nuts are removed you can simply slide the bumper backwards (towards you, and away from the car), and it should come right off. I had no trouble sliding the new bumper into place on my own (in the Home Depot parking lot), and reattaching the nuts onto the bolts (which are fixed onto the beam of the bumper).
Next step reattach the torx screws at the bottom of the bumper. Then reinstall the skid guard and you're done.
I spent way too long trying to do this job without the apporpriate tools. If you have the proper deep socket to access the nuts, then you could probably do this in well under an hour (though it might take you longer than the 10 minutes the guy at Goldwing Used Saab Parts claims it takes him).
good luck.
My car looks soooo much better now.
posted by 144.211....
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
