How to Replace Bumper Cover 2003-11 Honda Element

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

Hey, everyone. Sue here from 1A Auto. Today, on an '06 Honda Element, I'm going to show you how to remove the whole front bumper. If you need any parts for your car, click on the link below and head over to 1aauto.com.

I'm going to raise my vehicle up on a two-post lift. You can use a jack and jack stands at home. You're going to get all the bolts underneath first. To start with the bumper, I'm going to take the outer cover off. There are two on each corner—10 mm socket-style bolts—and they're probably pretty rusted. And you can't get up in there with the spray, unfortunately. See if this one will come down, or if it's spinning in place. Yep. I'm going to try to get some spray up there, because this clip does have a cutout right here. I'm going to have to let that soak. This one, I think, is spinning in place. I'm going to come over here and get these ready. At this point, where we tried to remove these little bolts, here, holding. They're metal clips with welded nuts on them that hold the plastic down. They're so rusted that the nut has broken off on the metal clip, so all four metal bolts on—two on that side, two on this side—are just spinning in place. What we're going to do is bring it back down. And we're going to disconnect the top of the bumper, and see if we pry it out, if we can access these, and go from that point.

I'm going to remove this plastic clip that's still intact. The other one's missing. Now I've got one piece out from underneath. Now I'm going to bring it down halfway, because I've got to go in the fender well and see if I can take the two bolts out from the fender well. I'm going to take the fender flare, this bolt off both fenders, so that I can access the bumper. Goes in here on a clip. That's an 8 mm socket. I'm going to do the same thing to the other side. Obviously, everything on this vehicle is somewhat broken, and causing havoc, so you've just got to get this piece out. Now we're going to move on to this one. Hope they all don't break. There're five total on this. Oh, look at that. Just like the way it's supposed to go. Obviously, we're going to have to get a whole bunch of body clips for this vehicle, because we just started, and this is how much they're all just coming apart and breaking. They're so brittle. Let's see what we get. There we go. Now we just simply lift this up. There you go.

Now we're going to remove all the other plastic clips that we see up here. Think I'm going to have to use multiple tools at the same time to try to save some of these. Like they're made of steel. I've never seen anything like it. Okay, let's move on to the three on each headlight. Okay, we'll move over here. The reason we're changing these headlights. They're not as foggy as they could be. I've seen a lot worse, but something else that's pretty common with these elements is these ears break off. It's a lot of weight on this front nose design and I think that has a lot to do with it. The cold, and just tapping—you tap it, both headlights are broken in the assemblies. That will give an improper headlight alignment. So, obviously, you go down the road, the headlights will shake, or they're just not lined up properly. I took this bolt out and I took these other two body clips out. I'm going to take this last one here, just to give it a little bit more flex.

Now that you need to pull this, you're going to pull this flare out like that. You get this ear tab that goes over there. It mounts right over that screw part. Then, these are plastic push-ins, so, you're just going to grab it from the top and pull it out. Now we've got to do the same thing to the other side. The clip on the inside of this fender well's just spinning, so I'm going to try a pair of angled needle nose pliers to try and hold that clip in place, while I take my 8 mm socket, see if I can spin this free. Perfect. I'm just going to keep removing the broken clips. Just going to remove as much as I can. Now I can pull this flare out, grab the bumper, and give it a pull. There we go. Now let's lower it down and see if we can get to these broken tabs on the bottom.

Now that we have access to the bottom mounting bolts, you see the clip is broken. I'm going to use a pair of locking needle nose pliers, see if I can grab onto this. I'm going to use an electric 3/8 drive, down below here, with my 10 mm socket. There we go. We're just going to end up breaking the plastic, I think. I've got one more over here. Now that I can reach it better, I'll soak it. Now, I'm going to put the locking pliers on this one. I'm going to go down below. Let's see what happens. I'm going to try at this angle. Nope. Basically, every clip is rotted, busted, so we're going to have to—now the bumper's off the car. When it comes to the time, we're going to have to remove each one of those clips, whether we have to cut them out, or just let them soak a little bit longer. We'll have to replace those. Now I can remove my bumper from the area.

Now we're ready to put the bumper back on. We have a lot of hardware breakage from the age of the car, a lot of dried plastic, so we have to replace almost all of our pieces. I'm just going to line it up and show you how to line it up. You took it apart, I'm sure you can gather it. So, this notch is going to go right into the plastic notch that's in that fender flare. Hold it up, line that up, and just push it right in. I'm going to do the other side the same way. We can hear our things starting to set themselves in. Now you're going to put all your clips back in on the top. You're going to put one center clip in, then you're going to install your top radiator cover. The outer fours go in after. Then, don't forget to take each fender well and put this tab over. You're going to tuck up the inner fender well, put the tab over that. Then you place your top fender well over it, and then put the screw in.

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