Trying to remove front bumper

I'm hoping the wealth of advice on this site will be able help me as much as my previous cry for help!

I have to replace the ABS Modulator on my '98 Freelander 1 XEDI and have discovered that, although the job seems fairly straight forward at first glance, I now have to dimantle half of the front of the vehicle first for access!:doh:

Unfortunately, I have fallen at the first hurdle! I need to remove the front bumper and, of course all but one of the fixing screws are locked solid! As the bumper is so flexible, it is difficult to get any kind of purchase on the screwheads without the danger of cracking the bumper. Has anyone got any tips on getting these buggers out? Am I going to have to resort to drilling them out or is there a neat trick that I'm not aware of?

Any suggestions or thoughts would be much appreciated.

Best bet is extract and replace, with something like these:

screw extractor | eBay

My method: Carefully hacksaw a slot in the head of each of the poor quality cross head self tappers then use a broad flat blade screwdriver to remove, some may need gripping with a 'mole' wrench. All of these awful self tappers have been replaced with galvanised 10mm self tapping bolts. The hidden bolts which hold the upper and lower sections together behind the headlamps were ground off and replaced with stainless bolts. Bumper removal is now a 5 minute job.

Left handed quality drill bits! Plus decent tools so you don't tend to round things off, and clean the fastener before attempting to undo it! All work for me! Last resort, grinder and mole grips

All you need is a stout fence post, a length of strongish chain, bring em together and back off sharpish like. Job done.

Soloby Rob said:

All you need is a stout fence post, a length of strongish chain, bring em together and back off sharpish like. Job done.

Click to expand...

Doh! Never thought of that

you can get a set of cross head extractors last place I saw them was aldi but other than that if you get a hacksaw blade and cut the heads of and once the bumper is off then you will be able to get them out

Thanks for your suggestions. I`ll work through them all until I find one that works, even the more radical solutions!

im just having same problem so far got 3 out cutting rest were about are all the screws as i got all top and bottom screws out but bumper still stuck solid

Did you get the two in the wheel arch around the edge, the two at the bottom of the wheel arch, and remove the access cover in the wheelarch and get the bolt out from the inside?

yes i think i got them all i found 2 bolts inside the access panel so took both out lol have you got a picture or diagram of were the bolts are cos mine is still stuck solid so far ive taken off 10 scews had to damage some though

Ok so in each wing you have the two going up the vertical edge holding the bumper to the inner wing trim. Along the bottom front edge there is again another two. (so thats 4 per wheelarch). Underneath the car there should be two shorter screws going from the paint coloured plastic to the undertray. On the top of the bumper, underneath where the bonnet closes should be four black screws between the headlights (centre of the car). And theres the two bolts inside the access panel.

Total is 14 screws and two bolts.