I have an '01 that has 4800 miles on it. Today I discovered that there is a gap between the rear bumper and the fender that was not there last Friday when I washed the car. I drove it to KC from Omaha and parked it in a friend's driveway. When I drove back to Omaha on Sunday I stopped to fill up with gas and as I got out I heard a popping sound. Walked around the car and didn't notice anything unusual. Monday I took the car in for it's service bulletin plug replacement and pointed out to the service people that there is a gap the wasn't there before. The Honda body shop looked at it and wondered if someone had used the bumper as a rest to tie a shoe. Get real!!! You'd have to have a 300lb foot to put enough pressure on the bumper to get the corner to move out of it's channel. The body tech also noticed a 1/4 inch blemish in the paint on the corner of the bumper that wasn't into the primer. It could barely be seen. He thought that something might have hit it. No way that that tiny blemish could suggest that it was hit hard enough to pop the right rear bumper out of alignment. He said that he'd run it by the Honda regional service rep. I kind of know where this will go. The following post caught my attention as it appears that at least one other owner has had a similar experience:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=23973

Could the popping sound that I heard have been the bumper popping out of the channel?
Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas about getting Honda to fix? Cost is about $40 for one hour of work.

 

Is this gap near the tail light? If so, most 00-01 cars have them.

 

It is the seam that is between the bumper and the rear quarter panel. This seam is nice and tight on the driver's side. It is very obvious that the rear bumper on the passenger side has popped out of the channel. I'm sure that there are some clips that hold the two pieces together. I would have noticed this gap if it had been there last week when I washed the car. Looks like the two pieces have just popped apart. I hope that my local dealership doesn't dog me with some lame excuses for not fixing this under warrenty. My car only had 980 miles on it when I picked it up and it had never been titled. I think that the dealership used it for a demo. It is cerified so I hope that they help me out.

Thanks,
Scott

 

i have the same thing. i dont worry about that, i guess its normal.
my bumper though is sticking out a little bit than the rear panel.
i guess its normal.