Front bumper issues

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Introduction

Jimnys have been in production since 1998, and there have been three front bumper models on them:

1. 1st gen. bumper (1998-2005)
2. 2nd gen. bumper (2006-2012)
3. 3rd gen. bumper (2013-ongoing)

All of those are made of plastic.

Main characteristics of each bumper generation:

• The 1st gen. bumper is the smallest one (does not hang too low to the ground).
• The 3rd gen. bumper also is not bad.
• However, 2nd gen. bumper is overly large (hangs very low to the ground), and it significantly reduces the approach angle - the risk of it hitting the ground is quite higher than with other two bumper models.

• 

  1st gen. front bumper on a 2001 model year Jimny

• 

  2nd gen. front bumper on a 2009 model year Jimny

• 

  3rd gen. front bumper on a 2014 model year Jimny

Problems with 2nd gen. front bumper

• The 2nd gen. front bumper is the most endangered point when off-roading, and it's easy to damage.
• Also, 2nd gen. bumper reduces the space around the front wheels, limiting the size to which the wheels can be increased (by using larger tyres).
• With 2nd gen. bumper, the usual tyre size limit is 205 / 75 / R15 (and even that size sometimes makes a contact if the bumper is sagged), while with the 1st gen. bumper even 215 / 75 / R15 is not a problem.

The 3rd gen. front bumper is also a bit restrictive in regards to the above issues, but not as much as the 2nd gen. front bumper.

Solution 1: Trimming the front bumper

• Trimming the lower part of a front bumper is the quickest and (seemingly) the simplest solution to increasing vehicle's approach angle and free space around front wheels.
• Because of all the mentioned problems with the 2nd gen. front bumper, many people trim the bottom half of the 2nd gen. front bumper, but it tends to look ugly.
• Also, if you trim a 2nd gen. or 3rd gen. front bumper, you would probably lose your front fog lamps (if you have them) and a place to hold the front license plate.

Alternative solution to trimming a front bumper is to replace it with something else.

Examples of trimmed 2nd gen. front bumpers

• Example 1 of trimmed 2nd gen. front bumper
• Suzuki Jimny 2nd gen front bumper, trimmed - A01.jpg

  License plate attached, but it hangs and could easily rip off.

• Suzuki Jimny 2nd gen front bumper, trimmed - A02.jpg

  Side view of the result.

• Suzuki Jimny 2nd gen front bumper, trimmed - A03.jpg

  Close-up side view of the result.

• Example 2 of trimmed 2nd gen. front bumper
• Suzuki Jimny 2nd gen front bumper, trimmed - B01.jpg

  License plate kept indoors. This might not be legal everywhere.

• Suzuki Jimny 2nd gen front bumper, trimmed - B02.jpg

  Side view of the result.

• Notice that the resulting trimmed 2nd gen. front bumper (in both examples) is actually only slightly shallower than a stock (unmodified) 1st gen. front bumper.
• Some people trim the 1st gen. front bumper as well. However, if you really need such high approach angles, then your vehicle is probably already so much modified that one more ugly trim does not matter for the aesthetics or fog lamp / license plate functionality.

Solution 2: Factory bumper generation swap

• If you have a 2nd gen. front bumper, and you find that it obstructs your vehicle's offroading "potency" (or limits your intentions on using larger tyres), the best alternative is to buy a second-hand 1st gen. front bumper (1998-2005) from a scrap yard (or exchange it with another Jimny owner), paint it if needed, and install it instead of the 2nd gen. front bumper.
• You could even swap a 3rd gen. front bumper with a 1st gen. front bumper if you want some more clearance, but the difference is not so pronounced as with a change from 2nd gen. to 1st gen. front bumper.

• The mounts for attaching a bumper on the vehicle should be (almost) 100% compatible on any Jimny from 1998 until today - but it has not been confirmed by someone yet.
• Replacing one edition of a front bumper with another on the same vehicle should be legal (both are genuine parts), and it should not affect the operation of the airbag sensor(s). But this is a theoretical assumption.

File:Suzuki Jimny front bumper - 1st and 2nd gen - A01.jpg

1st and 2nd gen. front bumper on the same vehicle

File:Suzuki Jimny with 3rd gen front bumper - side view - A01.jpg

A side view of a 3rd gen. front bumper

• Here is a side-by-side comparison of 1st and 2nd gen. front bumper on the same vehicle.
• The body color differs in the left and right parts of the image because of different lightning conditions.
• The "before" (left) part of the image is with a 2nd gen. bumper.
• The "after" (right) part of the image is with a 1st gen. bumper.
• The side view picture of a 3rd gen. front bumper might not be directly comparable with these two on the left, because it was not taken from the exactly the same angle.

Additional considerations

Front fog lamps

• If you have front fog lamps, the situation with swapping the front bumpers might be a bit more complicated.
• Nobody has yet reported the practical experience about compatibility of front fog lamps (and their carriers) with different front bumper generations.
• The fog lamps themselves should be compatible with any front bumper generation.
• Front fog lamp wiring should be the same for all fog lamps.
• However, fog lamp carriers are most probably compatible only with their front bumper generation (in other words, each front bumper generation probably has different front fog lamp carriers).
• The possible incompatibility of front fog lamp carriers with a different bumper generation might be remedied by modifying the carriers (some small cutting and/or welding). But the best solution is to obtain matching carriers (preferably together with fog lamps) from a local vehicle junkyard which has dead Jimnys.

Inner front wheel arches

• Inner front wheel arches (black plastic arches) have different length for different bumper generations - your current ones will either be too short with the new bumper, or you will have to shorten them (depending on what you are replacing with what).
• If you are swapping a 2nd gen. front bumper with a 3rd gen. or 1st gen. front bumper (or a 3rd gen. front bumper with a 1st gen. front bumper), your old inner front wheel arches will be too long for the new bumper. The simplest remedy is to trim the front bottom part of the inner wheel arches. However, it would be more advisable to buy the matching front inner wheel arches together with the new front bumper. This leaves your old front inner wheel arches intact for future use or for selling.
• On the other hand, if you are (for some impractical reason) replacing your 1st gen. front bumper with a 2nd gen. or 3rd gen. front bumper (or a 3rd gen. front bumper with a 2nd gen. front bumper), then you will have to buy the matching front inner wheel arches, because your old ones will be too short.

Front nudge bar (bull bar)

• If your vehicle currently has a metal front nudge bar (bull bar) installed, it probably will not be compatible with a different bumper generation.
• If you are swapping a 2nd gen. front bumper with a 3rd gen. or 1st gen. front bumper (or a 3rd gen. front bumper with a 1st gen. front bumper), the old nudge bar will fit without any collisions, but its bottom will be too low compared with the bottom of the new bumper.
• On the other hand, if you are (for some impractical reason) replacing your 1st gen. front bumper with a 2nd gen. or 3rd gen. front bumper (or a 3rd gen. front bumper with a 2nd gen. front bumper), the bottom of the old nudge bar will most probably collide with the bottom of the new front bumper, because the new front bumper hangs lower towards the ground.

Front nudge bars severely restrict vehicle's approach angle, so they should preferably be removed altogether if the vehicle is used in off road duty. Read more in the wiki article "Bull bar (nudge bar)".

Restrictions with DDiS Jimnys

It has been confirmed that replacing a 2nd gen. front bumper with a 1st gen. front bumper is not practical on DDiS (diesel) Jimnys with 63kW (intercooled) K9K 266 engine.

• The problem is that the engine intercooler sits low right up front, just above the right fog lamp.
• If you try to replace the factory-installed 2nd gen. front bumper with the 1st gen. front bumper, you will have to discard the right fog lamp (if you have fog lamps).
• You will also have to leave open the right fog lamp hole in the 1st gen. bumper, in order to feed the intercooler with air (and even that hole might not be sufficient to feed it).
• You should also install some grid in the right fog lamp hole, to prevent an object going through the hole and puncturing the intercooler.
• Alternatively, you could dislocate the intercooler, but the free space in the engine bay is very scarce, and moving the intercooler is an expensive modification.

• 2nd gen DDiS Jimny without the front bumper
• Suzuki Jimny DDiS gen2 - without front bumper - A01.jpg

  The intercooler is just below the right head lamp

• Suzuki Jimny DDiS gen2 - without front bumper - A02.jpg

  The intercooler in all its beauty

Replacing a 2nd gen. front bumper with a 3rd gen. front bumper on a DDiS Jimny with 63kW (intercooled) K9K engine would also probably incur the same above issues, but this combination has not yet been tried in practice.

Solution 3: Heavy-duty metal "off roader" ("winch") front bumper

Another alternative to all these factory bumper generation swaps or trimmings is to buy an aftermarket heavy-duty metal "off roader" front bumper (also called a "winch bumper").

Advantages of a heavy-duty metal front bumper:

• Prominent looks;
• Takes a beating off road;
• Typically increases approach angle;
• It can also be used as a mount for driving lamps, winch, high lift jack, machine gun, a statue from the front of a ship, etc.
• You have a right to declare one gear as "ramming speed";

However, metal front bumpers have the following disadvantages:

• They might not be legal in certain regions;
• They increase the weight of the front of the car, possibly sagging the front suspension and increasing its wear;
• They might restrict airflow to the engine cooling system, and to the intercooler (if fitted);
• If they stick too far out to the front, they might actually reduce the approach angle;
• Most metal front bumpers will adversely affect the operation of the airbag sensor(s);
• Most metal front bumpers will adversely impact the fate of anything that collides with them;

Front bull bars (nudge bars)

These are accessory items which are (technically) not directly related to front bumpers.

Therefore, they have their dedicated wiki article: "Bull bar (nudge bar)".

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Page last edited on 28/09/2017 by user Bosanek