Removing rear bumper - Snapped plastic?

I ordered black valence's to replace the silver on my 2023 ORP. I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube of people removing the rear bumper and it looked pretty simple so felt confident doing it myself despite having little experience working on cars.

After removing all the screws, and being assured on the videos that muscling the sides of the rear bumper wouldn't harm anything, plastic exploded into little bits and broke near the right fender. It looks like the plastic holds the bumper tight to the car but it had a clip which I removed before pulling on the bumper. When I decided to abandon my effort and began pushing the bumper back into place another plastic piece broke behind the bumper and fell below the car. I was shocked considering how delicate I was being at how fragile this all was. When I look online I can't find anyone having a similar experience. I feel like my only option now is to bring it to a body shop to have them try and fix anything and align the bumper as its a little unaligned in some places. Can anyone speak to how serious this is?

 

Wow, what was the temperature in that space? Was it cold? I ask because I've had my rear bumper plastic off twice and my front bumper plastic off at least 6-7 times and never had an issue.

If I'm not mistaken, I'm seeing some bent plastic in the first pic and in the second pic the plastic appears to be pretty chewed up where the plastic hood latch cover goes. None of that should happen when removing and replacing these parts.

 

Here are your options, IMO. 1) Zip ties. 2) JB Plastic weld and zip ties. 3) Do all or some of the previous two options temporarily, and order replacement parts to repair the situation.
I wouldn't take it to a body shop unless you are absolutely un-confident in your abilities to repair your mess. They're going to bend you over with no grease. And, I'm not sure you can use insurance for self-inflicted damage. At this point, I think you can pull the bumper cover off and do whatever it was you were going to do. You're probably going to break some more parts. Go online, order the correct replacement parts and repair the entire mess. Chalk it up as a learning experience.

 

It was fairly cold, probably 30 degrees. I just really didn't expect that there would even be flimsy plastic connected to the bumper like that. I would imagine it can be replaced, the plastic had a part number on it but yielded no search results, NF 3P3D. It seems like I'm the only one who managed to pull this off, that's why I usually leave things to the professionals, lol. I just bought the car new though so it does bother me.

 

I've got nothing.

 

Is the temperature that big an issue? Do I need to wait until spring to remove the bumper? Thanks for the suggestions and I would like to replace the broken pieces but haven't been able to find where I can buy this part. Do you have any suggestions?

 

It IS the issue. I think this is the part number for what you broke. 52155-35050. But, make sure you can confirm. I didn't find I parts diagram, only a description. And, unless you have a heated garage to work in, don't do ANYTHING with plastic parts until it warms up. Like a minimum of 50F. I would wait until 70F.

 

Got it, thanks for digging that up for me and for your advice. I will keep that in mind.

 

Here's a link with a diagram. https://autoparts.toyota.com/search...NER&model_year=2023&model_year_code=2023:8672 It's in your hands now. You should be able to figure out what you broke with this.

 

I realize it’s too late for your current situation but whenever I’m doing anything with plastic and clips I heat the area up a bit if the temps are low. Plastic gets very brittle at low temps.

 

Everything gets brittle in the cold, some plastics more than others. The pray and yank method needed to get those off is sensitive to the spot you yank on, and how quickly you yank on it. Cold temps reduce margin for error by a lot.

You already intended to change the valance, so it wouldn’t be “factory fresh” even if you were successful. Don’t sweat it. It’s all part of learning. Actually, not if you take it to a body shop lol .

Buy the part, fix it, and enjoy the process. Post pics of the valance when you’re done!

 

Yep, I already ordered the replacement parts for the bumper supports that snapped and will replace them myself. Will definitely post some pics once I'm done and so anyone else who manages this in the future can reference this thread, lol. Its supposed to warm up a bit next weekend so hopefully the parts come. Appreciate everyone's feedback!

 

I strongly recommend you find a heated space (at least near interior room temperature) to leave the vehicle in for 24 hours before doing this work. The plastic hold together well enough in the cold when everything is in place but it's far too cold at 30 to do this work.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

Meh it's plastic. You'll break more of it once you hit the trails. The bracket is cheap:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10037328&cc=3307198&pt=689&jsn=476
https://www.partsgeek.com/czrr9zq-toyota-4runner-bumper-retainer.html