G.I.G.
New member
Last night I completed what I thought would be the finishing touches on a solid mounting job for my PIAA lights. I installed them a couple weeks ago with A10MileHusker's help and they look and work great! The only problem is that they bounce around too much while I'm driving.
I knew going into this install that mounting them directly to a plastic bumper is not ideal. Originally, Husker and I mounted the PIAA's through a single hole in the bumper with a 6"x1" mending plate on the other side. My original thought was to drill a second hole under the grill but the '06 and up grill is a bit different than the '03-'05 so it would have been a goofy set up. After test driving it and seeing how much the lights bounced around, I quickly realized that the lights would need a more secure base to be mounted on.
Alaskaman had mentioned that the guys that did his lights anchored his lights to the metal brace underneath the bumper and that they did not bounce around when driving. So I went to Ace Hardware over the weekend and bought two L-brackets. I had them drill a hole big enough for the PIAA bolt to go through one side, and used the pre-drilled hole on the other side as another anchor point. There is a metal brace that runs along the underside of the bumper which I wanted to use as the second anchor point. Since I could not get the angle I needed to drill through it, I cut two, 1/4 inch slots with tin snips in order to run the bolt through it. This enabled me to run the bolt through the metal brace and place washers on both sides of the metal brace and a bolt on the outside. Below are some bad cell phone pics I took, but you get the idea.
PIAA's mounted directly to front bumper.
Underside of bumper looking up.
After test driving it again, there was marginal improvement. They looked pretty stable when idelling and when driving on very smooth roads, but as soon as I hit a little bump, or worse yet, drive it on a dirt road, they start to bounce.
I don't know what other options I have at this point so I'm looking for some more ideas. Should I use rubber washers under the PIAA's to help with the bounce or will that make it worse? Should I anchor it another way or use something else? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I knew going into this install that mounting them directly to a plastic bumper is not ideal. Originally, Husker and I mounted the PIAA's through a single hole in the bumper with a 6"x1" mending plate on the other side. My original thought was to drill a second hole under the grill but the '06 and up grill is a bit different than the '03-'05 so it would have been a goofy set up. After test driving it and seeing how much the lights bounced around, I quickly realized that the lights would need a more secure base to be mounted on.
Alaskaman had mentioned that the guys that did his lights anchored his lights to the metal brace underneath the bumper and that they did not bounce around when driving. So I went to Ace Hardware over the weekend and bought two L-brackets. I had them drill a hole big enough for the PIAA bolt to go through one side, and used the pre-drilled hole on the other side as another anchor point. There is a metal brace that runs along the underside of the bumper which I wanted to use as the second anchor point. Since I could not get the angle I needed to drill through it, I cut two, 1/4 inch slots with tin snips in order to run the bolt through it. This enabled me to run the bolt through the metal brace and place washers on both sides of the metal brace and a bolt on the outside. Below are some bad cell phone pics I took, but you get the idea.
PIAA's mounted directly to front bumper.
Underside of bumper looking up.
After test driving it again, there was marginal improvement. They looked pretty stable when idelling and when driving on very smooth roads, but as soon as I hit a little bump, or worse yet, drive it on a dirt road, they start to bounce.
I don't know what other options I have at this point so I'm looking for some more ideas. Should I use rubber washers under the PIAA's to help with the bounce or will that make it worse? Should I anchor it another way or use something else? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
