Replacing the tailgate & rear bumper

Newbie Joined: Jun 04, 2011 Posts: 3

Hi all, my first post here so best introduce myself first!

Im Richard from Kent, drive an audi a3 tdi sport, with a huge dent in the rear bumper & tailgate due to some nice person hitting it in a car park and driving away. Evil or Very Mad

Anyways, I figured the cheapest repair option would be to buy a second hand tailgate & bumper the same colour and just fit them myself.

Could anyone give me any tips & advice on the procedure is it pretty straight forward? I normally service all my own cars, change the brakes etc so I know a bit about cars but ive never done anything like this before.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! And if anyone knows of a tailgate and bumper going let me know. Cheers.

Heres a picture of my damaged car, if the link works! Sad

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:47 pm

Welcome to the forum.

Had a quick look on VAGcat.com. Looks fairly straight-forward (famous last words) unbolt procedure. The biggest problem you'll have with the tailgate, will probably be the wiring. I'm assuming the second hand tailgate will come with wiring already in situ. Should just be a case of unplugging at some point in the loom? There will also be the vacuum pipe (central locking) and rear wash wipe rubber pipe. The tailgate is held in place with left and right hinges at the top. Normally they're splined bolts. Once they're undone (don't totally remove), release the gas struts either side. Get a friend to help lift it off as you unto the hinge bolts properly. You'll probably need to swap over the boot lock, etc.

I've attached a picture for the rear bumper for vehicles up to 2003.

This is also a useful site for quick reference... apart from Audifans of course. Very Happy

http://www.AudiDIY.com/a3.html

Newbie Joined: Jun 04, 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks for that! Smile

I purchased a tailgate rear bumper and lights from a X reg S3, managed to fit the lights and bumper but the electrics for the central locking and the lock barrel are different, as mines a T reg and the X reg S3 is a facelift I guess So slightly different! Anyone know if its possible to fit a facelift tailgate onto a non facelift a3? I managed to remove the tailgate no probs just had to unplug the wiring and feed it up through the holes, was pretty annyed when it didnt match up Sad