Crossroad Front Bumper

[Journeyphenia]

I have a 2015 Crossroad and there is an issue with the front bumper design/assembly. It may only be on the earliest production, not sure. First, I had to replace a bumper brace that was taking the weight of the drop. it had cracked. Dodge had 3 of these obscure parts in stock because, as they said, they break all the time, its' a known issue.

 

If your bumper is drooping like mine was, you will see a gap developing where the bumper ties into the body panel and also between the bumper and the headlights. I looked at a new Crossroad and saw a tight fit so I was sure that it didn't come this way new.

 

If there is a gap and play, you probably have a  cracked brace which joins the bumper to the front panel. This will likely be  the part you need to replace, $19. Don't replace it without the retrto fit or it will break again. After you replace the brace, do the retro fit. There is no fix, you will need to retro fit it on your own as I had too.

 

I used a jack to get the bumper up to it's natural location and remove the body panel gap. I removed the grill and added 4 metal shims to the steel frame, which the front bumper rests onto. After taking off the grill, put your hand inside and between the bumper and the steel frame and you will feel the play that exists and will come up with your own solution. Now the bumper is solid, doesn't sift up and down. Good luck.

[bramfrank]

Well, since the design of the body hasn't changed since 2009 and yours is a 2015 it isn't an 'early production' issue and since the R/T has always had the crossbar, it isn't going to be related  to the Crossroad, which has been in production since the 2014 model year (i.e. 2013).

I'm on my second Journey and I've been here since 2011 and have never heard of a issue with the physical bumper mount, so I don't know how common this issue may be, but with the bombed out roads we have here in Montreal if anything was going o break because it wasn't strong enough it would probably happen here.

If your bumper is drooping from a broken mount of some sort then I wonder if it isn't because someone 'bumped your bumper'?

[Journeyphenia]

The Crossroad bumper is a different bumper design than the other Journeys so it may only be a Crossroad issue and may have already been addressed in production. I bought in mid 2014 so I have an early production. The dealership parts dept. hinted at a known issue and commented on stocking this part that breaks. 

On the rear side of the bumper are 4, what I will call, "blocks". I can only feel them and they feel like hard styrofoam. These "blocks" sit on top of a structural frame and are what support the weight of the bumper.

I removed the grill and was able to fit 1/4" and 3/8" spacers between these blocks and the structural frame. Doing this, raised the bumper so that the bumper and body panel joint was straight and also removed the gap between the headlight and bumper.  It wasn't a matter of something broken. I found that out after replacing the broken part, it's an issue of an incorrect calculation of the bumper block dimensions. A thicker block will rest on top of the structural frame at the correct height and support the bumper weight as well as line up with the body panel and headlights.

 

 

[bramfrank]

Nope.  Same bumper as the R/T, just with a metallic silver trim.

My '14 has the same bumper.  No issues.  My bumper lines up on both sides.

[Medabum]

Does anyone have a photo of this? My 15 CR bumpers have play on each side. R/L front and back, but I have yet to have to see any cracks.  Notice the play when washing or waxing the vehicle most notably under the headlights. This might just be how the car is as I only have mine to report.  Like BM said, I'm sure the bumper hasn't changed but I applaud the effort and might do the same fix as the noise and feel of this is pretty annoying. I would be interested to see how many people actually crack their bumpers or notices the same play in these areas. 

 

So, I've never taken my front grill off, when you added "Metal shims" do you mean that you added washers to a bolt to take up the space  or welded spacers to the frame? 

 

[Journeyphenia]

The Crossroad front bumper is not the same as other Journey bumpers and I think the issue is only on the crossroad. Sounds like  you have the same issue I had. If you can lift your bumper about 1/4" to 1/2" and if there seems to be about 3/8" gap under the headlights, you probably do. 

 

Removing the grill starts out easy but getting the lower portion of it to pop out of the bumper can be tricky. You need to lift up on the lower grill tabs for them to release/pop out from the bumper

 

With the grill removed, if you lift your bumper, can you feel space between the bumper and the frame which it rests on? The backside of the bumper has 4 determined points where the bumper rests on the frame. It may have more but you can't access them this way. Those points are where I placed mending plates. Use a jack to lift your bumper to the point which you lessen the gap to the headlights. My gaps are about 3/16" ? Do this to determine how thick your shims need to be. I used 1/16" paper drywall shims to create the thickness needed for no play between bumper and frame. That is how I know how thick a mending plate I needed. I combined enough mending plates to equal the shim thickness. It ended up that two mending plates were about 1/4" and two were about 3/8".

 

The plates screwed into the top of that frame and slid under the bumper at those support points on the backside of the bumper. Don't bring the mending plate as forward into the bumper as possible. Push them as far forward and then back them off enough so that if you push them bumper in with your knee, the bumper doesn't hit the plate. I think my mending plates were about 4" long. 

 

There won't be a crack on the bumper. Where the bumper meets the front body panel will begin to have a gap. There is a plastic support that joins them. That part is what will crack. Yours may have and you will know by looking at the tightness of the panel to bumper. If it begins to gap near the headlight, it's cracked. It costs $19 but with the fix above, you may not need to replace it. 

 

The first photo shows the crack at the top edge. The third shows looking down from the hood latch, My shims are specific to my work, 2 white and 2 black. You can see one black to the left. They are screwed to the black frame.

 

Let me know if you have other questions. 

[Medabum]

Many props to this effort with photos and description here. The information and content is much appreciated as well as your time. Ill update what I find once i get a few things done off the home checklist and have some free time. However, my concern in previous posts may be different from the separation and loose panels that you have shown now that I see the photos.  I was referring to the gap and space below the headlights just forward of the front wheels on the bumper. Seems to be quite a bit of play there. The same goes for the lower rear bumper just past the rear tire well on both sides. 

 

My 15 CR seems to be tight in the area that has given you issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Journeyphenia]

If you can lift your front bumper by hand and reduce the gap at the headlights, the solution I used might work for you as well. I saw gaps below the headlights on other 2015 CR models when I bought and I thought it was normal. The gap was about 3/8" from my memory. It may have been less but I remember that it looked wrong to me. Mine is now about 1/9" or less.

 

 I have had some road scrapes on the underside of the stainless trim of the front bumper.  I'm hoping that in having raised the bumper by about 5/16" helps with that. Good luck to you with your issue. It takes time to go through it and figure how things go together and how each affects each. Let me know if you have any other question as you go. 

[LXRitw]

So I recently had my front bumper replaced and noticed a similar gap a couple months after the fact. Sure enough the brackets you showed were broken, I replaced them thinking this would fix my issue but it only made it slightly better and one side already seems to be popped out again. I had the bumper off when I did this and did not see the 4 points you placed your mending plates, are you referring to the part that protrudes out where the grilled clips in?

[John/Horace]

Holy dead thread…Batman.