Wheel Well Expanding Rivets

[Landon32]

Hello all,

This is my first time on the forum, since I just couldn’t come to a solution on my own.

I’ll try and keep it brief. Need to remove my bumper in order to gain some clearance, but but when I stated, I could not push the center pins of the expanding rivets in at all. They seem to be stuck in place, and I can’t move forward without their removal.

If anyone could help me troubleshoot, I would greatly appreciate it!

[wonkydonkey]

This is front bumper, right? I use a suitably-sized allen key, personally. It gives me something to get my hands around so that I can apply some force, while the 90 degree bend means I can get in there even with the car on the ground and the wheels in the "dead ahead" position. It takes 10 seconds to pop all four.

[MrPT]

If you use a screwdriver you’ll be forcing the head of the pin sideways into the rivet, which will hold it in place.

Best to use something that has a flat face that fits snuggly against the pin - e.g. a metal dowel, drill bit or allen key, as above - and give it a sharp tap with a hammer.

Buy yourself a plastic rivetting kit off eBay etc too - very cheap and the only way to get a clean reinstall.

[ben g]

They don't look like the oem plastic push rivets, so I'd imagine someone has replaced them at some point with God knows what.

Sometimes they need quite a bit of force to push through. I used a very small torx screwdriver which gave a nice flat circular surface to sit on the centre part.

Allen key and a hammer also does the trick

[Lance]

I replaced my push rivets with a centre that you unscrew half a turn, same principle but pull instead of push.

The pics looks to be a similar type.

[biojo]

they look like my old ones, if i remember correctly they get bit stuck at the endjust give them a firm tap, i know when i ordered new ones from bmw mine now have like a nail head so u can pull the center out and re use them