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I tried to have a good look on Sunday at the fog light that was loose in the front bumper. As advised I opened the access panel, but without a ramp I found it nearly impossible to see inside.

Instead I just had a good feel around. The light is firmly within a mount, but the mount itself wasn't hooked in. From the feel of it, there should be a clip onto the top of the bumper but there is nothing there.

Before I take the full bumper off when the weather is a bit better, I suspect I'm going to be missing a few clips an dscrews. Any ideas where to get them from?

Afternoon,

I had my front bumper sprayed a while ago and the paintshop damaged a clip removing it.

Being a bit fussy I decided to buy replacements and get the garage to replace them - are the old ones that tricky to get off? To be fair to the garage they've agreed to do it if I supply the part (£28 / side...!) but is it a real 'mare to get the old ones off?

thanks

JaEdBa, £28 a side ? I paid £25 incl. vat... Though £3 is hardly a huge difference lol

They are a pain to get off - the ONLY way is to use snips and carefully cut them apart then wiggle the bits out - i believe this is the way described in the BMW TIS too. You can see the results of mine earlier in this thread. Careful not to bend the lip of the wing where it clips in whilst you're doing it otherwise the new one won't fit flush. It is a PITA but with care is not hard.

Bing wrote:JaEdBa, £28 a side ? I paid £25 incl. vat... Though £3 is hardly a huge difference lol

They are a pain to get off - the ONLY way is to use snips and carefully cut them apart then wiggle the bits out - i believe this is the way described in the BMW TIS too. You can see the results of mine earlier in this thread. Careful not to bend the lip of the wing where it clips in whilst you're doing it otherwise the new one won't fit flush. It is a PITA but with care is not hard.

Looks like you'll be coming round mine when my Aero needs to be fitted

Jembo wrote:

Bing wrote:JaEdBa, £28 a side ? I paid £25 incl. vat... Though £3 is hardly a huge difference lol

They are a pain to get off - the ONLY way is to use snips and carefully cut them apart then wiggle the bits out - i believe this is the way described in the BMW TIS too. You can see the results of mine earlier in this thread. Careful not to bend the lip of the wing where it clips in whilst you're doing it otherwise the new one won't fit flush. It is a PITA but with care is not hard.

Looks like you'll be coming round mine when my Aero needs to be fitted

Be happy too

Bing wrote:JaEdBa, £28 a side ? I paid £25 incl. vat... Though £3 is hardly a huge difference lol

They are a pain to get off - the ONLY way is to use snips and carefully cut them apart then wiggle the bits out - i believe this is the way described in the BMW TIS too. You can see the results of mine earlier in this thread. Careful not to bend the lip of the wing where it clips in whilst you're doing it otherwise the new one won't fit flush. It is a PITA but with care is not hard.

if you knew where to aim could you drill them out?

With the bumper off, and the new ones as a reference... Perhaps, with a very very low speed setting. I'd still snip a load of bits off though. Don't stress though - if I can do it, pretty much anyone could. I am a cack-handed tw@t

Bing wrote:JaEdBa, £28 a side ? I paid £25 incl. vat... Though £3 is hardly a huge difference lol

got 2 for £48, told the chap behind the counter that his colleague said I could have a discount. tell you what - they're good value for money....f***ing hell, 2 bits of plastic! that's definitely one to keep quiet on the domestic finances front....

i'd do it myself but I suspect it'd be one of those jobs you start and wish you hadn't so i'll let the garage do it - I asked them if the clips were ok when the bumper was off.

mister_roger wrote:Step 1:

Start by removing the expanding tabs along each fenderwell. These tabs function by having a small plastic rod become inserted down the middle, causing the tab to expand and lock in place. To remove these tabs, take the tiny screwdrive and PUSH the rods all the way in until you hear them fall. Don't worry, you'll be able to recover them when the bumper is removed.

Cheers for the instructions - removed my bumper yesterday and they came in really handy.

I was a bit caught out though - the expanding tabs mentioned above were not re-usable in my case (or I'm being thick!).



The only way I can see that they might be re-used is if you save the plastic pins and push them into the tabs from behind, i.e. inside the bumper. This is difficult to do for some of them and almost impossible for the ones at the top/bottom of the wheel arch.

Got a bit worried because I was short of time and had to get the bumper back on properly, but managed to rig up something with small black tie-wraps:





With the above arrangement you can crank up the tension on the tabs to match the OEM items and then snip the excess tie wrap off with a pair of scissors; a little tip for anyone else that gets themselves into a similarly irrecoverable situation! Will get some more tabs on order from Sopers and fit them properly one day.

Nice patch up job

Definitely the wrong ones though.

Bing wrote:Nice patch up job

Definitely the wrong ones though.

Aha! Cheers Bing.

So how do the correct ones work when you come to putting everything back together? My bumper's been off before at some point for a respray (previous owner) and maybe it was reassembled with the wrong type of tab.

Sent from my GT-P6810 using Tapatalk 4

Nope after the facelift it seems that the expanding tabs are not reusable. Got some reusable ones for £2 from eBay.

Well mine's a facelift and it had (has) the push through reusable type. They just have a smooth pin that pushes through the hole and forces the tabs behind to expand. They are only about 50% reusable though - I lost about half the pins the first time I took the bumper off

With the bumper removed, you should see the 4 expanding tab pins that dropped. Save them for use later.
[img]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j293/ ... 11.jpg[img]



Had my bumper off to fit new hd liters today, what are the two elec connections pics above, one is outside temp I'd say, what's the other ??

zagamuffin wrote:With the bumper removed, you should see the 4 expanding tab pins that dropped. Save them for use later.




Had my bumper off to fit new hd liters today, what are the two elec connections pics above, one is outside temp I'd say, what's the other ??

I can only see one picture - that does look like a temp sensor (part number 61318370747). Did you ever figure this out?