'00 Firehawk - Front bumper scraping

**RazorHawk** · 01-14-2009, 05:22 PM

As a new Fireahawk owner the one thing I like the least is the fact that I can't seem to drive anywhere without hearing the front bumper scrape the street. I'm talking about normal, everyday driving, on regularly travelled roads. My car doesn't have any after market suspension components so I'm not sure how I could even think about "lowering" the car--my thoughts seem to be centered on how can I get my car to raise up a few inches.

Is bumper scraping a part of life? I can't imagine all the folks that have a nice ride would put up with a scraped up lower front bumper. I'm afraid of what will happen if I get caught in an unfamiliar area and hit a "big dip" in the road--could lose my bumper completely. HELP!

**KyleLs1** · 01-14-2009, 06:14 PM

your bumpers should not scrape at all driving down the road, im lowered quite a bit and i can get in and out of just about any steep incline without trouble. are you sure its not something else scraping, do you have headers?

**RazorHawk** · 01-14-2009, 07:08 PM

Bone stock all the way around--suspension and engine. My tire pressure is about 32 front and 30 rear (last time I checked about 10 days ago). I would imagine that F-bodies and Corvettes would have the same possible problem since we have so much "front end" out beyond the front wheels. Anyway, any thoughts/comments would be appreciated. The one thing that could be scraping is the flexible air dam but the underside of my front bumper tells a different story. Fortunately I haven't seen any stress on the bumper other than the scrapes. From street level the car looks great, look under the bumper and it is all kinds of scraped up. Maybe with 96K miles the suspension is getting "soft" and it is time for new springs?

**One_Bad_TA** · 01-15-2009, 06:37 AM

My air dam hits a lot as well. My bumper has a few scrapes on it but if you look at the bottom of your air dam its probably scratched up a bit. Im on stock suspension as well with 107k and I doubt your hitting your bumper sometimes I hit the curbs goin up driveways and whatnot but i never hit my bumper

**GULLETT17** · 01-15-2009, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by One_Bad_TA

My air dam hits a lot as well. My bumper has a few scrapes on it but if you look at the bottom of your air dam its probably scratched up a bit. Im on stock suspension as well with 107k and I doubt your hitting your bumper sometimes I hit the curbs goin up driveways and whatnot but i never hit my bumper

i agree. . . prob the air deflector. op, i take it your just hearin it rub?

**Blue28** · 01-15-2009, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by GULLETT17

i agree. . . prob the air deflector. op, i take it your just hearin it rub?

Air deflector!

Mine used to do it often at stock height!

I can't imagine you scraping the nose of the bumper unless you're lowered a lot!

**346ci** · 01-15-2009, 12:49 PM

I agree that it's the air dam, my bumper rarely scrapes anything

**bigrondownhiller** · 01-15-2009, 03:00 PM

Probably could use some new shocks. It is most likely the air dam hitting.

**RazorHawk** · 01-16-2009, 03:09 PM

I agree that it should be the air dam...but the bottom of my bumper tells me a different story. Yeah, I hear it when I drive and it just sounds so "not good".

I read somewhere about a white shoe polish test--basically put the shoe polish on the bottom of the bumper and the air dam and see where the "bald" spots are after a bit of driving. I can live with the air dam taking some scrapes...

I'm going to run this little experiment and I'll post up how it goes.

Thanks for the feedback.