I recently bought a used '08 Mazda3 from a dealer and ended up rubbing the front passenger side of the car against a pole at a gas station earlier this week. Basically, at the front end of the car where the metal and plastic frames meet, the metal near the passenger side headlight pressed inward (though there's no evidence of a crease or dent) and disconnected from the plastic lower half. So the metal is stuck in a position a little behind the headlight, and the plastic is jutting out a bit. The headlights were miraculously both unbroken.

Anyway, I have no idea how to get those pieces to reconnect, even though it looks like it should just pop back into place. I just can't seem to press the metal back out into the right position. Is there a trick to fix it?

Well, today I noticed that neither of my low beam headlights are operating. I don't know if they've been out since that happened, at least I haven't noticed, but the fog lights and high beams work fine. But neither of my low beam headlights will turn on, and I checked the fuses under the glove compartment, but everything seems fine there. Is it likely they just both went out at the same time? Could hitting the car have messed with a connection somewhere?

 

As far as the lights not working it sounds more like a coincidence than anything else. You'll want to check the relay in the engine compt. fuse box to rule that out. Also while it's not exactly common it is possible that both lamps simply burned out at the same time.

For the bumper getting it back together will depend on whether or not the metal part is bent too far out of shape to mate with the plastic bumper again. Here's the steps for removing the bumper.

-open hood
-remove multiple screws under front edge of bumper (I think 8)
-remove plastic anchors from front of each front wheel well (2/side)
-pull back black fender lining and remove one screw/side right at the furthest back point of the bumper up into the fender
-remove two screws near grill area
-slide the rubber top of the little round bumpers in the grill area to the side, pop up the center of the anchor and pull the anchor out
-pull the sides of the bumper off the fenders to release the little clips
-lift the bumper from the front center (there are two little hooks that you need to disengage) and lower it to the ground.

Once you have all that done you should be able to see what the damage is and if there's any way for you to fix it yourself. Taking it off only takes about 10 minutes the first time.