2006 Fiesta bumper fasteners

[pfrcom]

Daughter just bought a 2006 Fiesta Zetec with a rattle that shows up while driving

Thought it might be spare wheel not properly secured, but closer inspection found fastener missing between plastic bumper bar and plastic subframe, and another missing between plastic subframe and (hopefully metal) bodywork

Google searches make me think they're pop rivets - is this correct ?

I could probably get a small nut & bolt into each place - any reasons not to do this ?

[kiwijohn42]

Mine is missing a few from the inner guard.
I'd probably use a metal nut & bolt.

[pfrcom]

After sleeping on it ....

.... bumper bar shows some crazing at the side - adjacent to a small dent in the rear wheel arch

Guess a parking incident put stress on the bumper bar and its subframe, causing the subframe to break away from the pop rivet fastening it to the bodywork

Assume pop rivet because subframe side still fastened has the inside of a pop rivet protruding into the spare wheel well

So I re-fastened the plastic subframe to the bodywork with a M5 screw, flat washers either side, and a Nyloc nut

Remaining fasteners for the plastic bumper bar to the plastic subframe seem to be those push-through plastic barbed clips

I decided not to use metal fasteners here, on the assumption that original plastic clips are meant to shear or pop out if the bumper bar flexes, rather than bumper bar mounting point breaking away

So I joined them together with a good old cable tie which will likely come apart under stress instead of breaking the bumper bar

Job done