Windscreen scuttle broken clips

[oldgitdave]

There was a fair amount of bitumen type stuff along the bottom edge the passenger side oozing out under the windscreen scuttle & as the scuttle seemed loose I decided to investigate.
Scuttle removed & sure enough there are several broken clips. Trouble is the clip retaining feature on the scuttle itself is missing in 4 places:

A good clip


Clip retaining feature with clip removed


Missing retaining feature


Question is; can the retaining feature on the scuttle be replaced, or do I need to buy a new scuttle? Part number 51717043619 I believe. They're not cheap

 

[rally-chris]

The white plastic stud is a pretty standard BMW trim clip so can be replaced separately. Unfortunately the bit it slides into is plastic welded to the main scuttle as can be seen in your pictures so I'd say it is highly unlikely you can buy a replacement separately, and even if you did you may struggle to bond it onto the scuttle successfully.

Chris

 

[Mike6]

Dont tell me the Z4 scuttle is as bad as on my Ford Focus. Without fail whenever the cabin filter is changed I end up going to the vehicle dismantlers as the clips break up. Worse design you could possibly come up with. I think its deliberate and its regarded as a serviceable item.

 

[srhutch]

Other than buying new you could get some 3d printed holders made and bonded to the scuttle.

 

[oldgitdave]

The white plastic stud is a pretty standard BMW trim clip so can be replaced separately. Unfortunately the bit it slides into is plastic welded to the main scuttle as can be seen in your pictures so I'd say it is highly unlikely you can buy a replacement separately, and even if you did you may struggle to bond it onto the scuttle successfully.

Chris

Ahh yes, so the crisscross marks are plastic welding stamp marks. Makes sense. I guess the missing parts could be glued given how good the specialist super glues are these days. Chances of getting those look slim though. Time to look on fleabay.

Dont tell me the Z4 scuttle is as bad as on my Ford Focus. Without fail whenever the cabin filter is changed I end up going to the vehicle dismantlers as the clips break up. Worse design you could possibly come up with. I think its deliberate and its regarded as a serviceable item.

Well, the clips can be bought reasonably cheaply. Part No. 51718234698 I believe. But yes I agree, almost designed to break if you tamper with it

 

[oldgitdave]

Other than buying new you could get some 3d printed holders made and bonded to the scuttle.

So how would I go about that? Guess I'd need to remove one if the remaining holders & then someone would need to scan it to produce a cad software file to enable 3d printing. Probably wouldn't be worth anyones while to to this given the very small amount of parts required.
I did get some 3d printed lock covers from IAmOrion on here which work really well. Perhaps I'll give him a shout .

 

[srhutch]

It would be easy to make. Just a square base with two sides and then lips to those sides.

Give me the dimensions of the hole in the 3rd pic and the slot depth and width of main gap and I'll see what I can do.

 

[oldgitdave]

Wow OK. I'll get on to that & get back to you. Thanks

 

[oldgitdave]

It would be easy to make. Just a square base with two sides and then lips to those sides.

Give me the dimensions of the hole in the 3rd pic and the slot depth and width of main gap and I'll see what I can do.

Hi srhutch, I've taken some measurements as per the photos below. The piece actually sits on top of the square shown in the 1st pic so I think the hole size is probably irrelevant as the depth of these vary from one to another. I appreciate you looking at this for me. Let me know if you need any other info. Thanks.
Dave

 

[MrPT]

Steve, that’s a kind offer. What plastics can you print? Would suggest using ABS filaments then the part can be bonded on using an acetone slurry. Should be much stronger than epoxy, superglue etc.