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      05-22-2007, 07:30 PM   #1
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Removing Front Bumper - *OP* EGO



A lot of people have asked for some guidance on Z4 front bumper removal. So here goes..!

The first thing to do is make some space, get something to lay on and gather a few tools. At the very least you’ll need a screwdriver with a small hex bit to fit into the upper screws, and a socket set with an 8mm bit.



So, starting at the top, open your bonnet and look at the rubber strip near the outside edge. You will see 7 black screws with hex shaped holes. Don’t undo these yet (despite what you can see in the picture!), as it’s helpful for the bumper to be held on firmly at the top whilst you undo everything else. So read on first!



Look inside one of the front wheel arches. You will see a set of four round black plastic bodywork clips.



These are tricky little things that often cause more grief than they should. Some people try to twist them, some cut them off, but actually they work very simply. Each one has a small black plastic ‘rod’ inside it. This expands the arms and causes the clip to grip. You can see them in various states in the picture below.



When installing them, they are pushed in without the rod, so they are quite loose. Then the rod is pushed into their central hole which causes them to expand. So how do you remove them? Easy, just get something long and pointy – I use a tiny jewellery screwdriver – and push firmly in the centre ( ie onto the top of the rod ). This may take a few tries, as you might be pushing the clip and not the actual rod. Keep trying, you’ll know when you’ve got it right because they will suddenly slide in, and fall into the inside of the bumper. Don’t panic – the idea is to push them all the way in – you can retrieve them later once you’ve got the bumper off. Make sure you find them though as you can’t do the clip up without them! So, now is the time to do this, push all four rods in, then pull the four loose clips out – this may require some wiggling with a screwdriver, but they will come out. Now do this in the other wheel arch too.

When removing bits, I always find it useful to put them into a jar as you go along, so it’s all there when you come to put it back. So you should now have 8 empty bodywork clips, and maybe one or two of the rods that might have fallen out of the bumper – have a good look on the floor - maybe not yet.

Next get underneath your car and look for 7 screws, that will open with your 8mm socket.



At first you might think that a few of these screws aren’t holding the bumper on. This is because some are obviously attached to the bumper, but some are screwed into a piece of black plastic. The lower plastic mesh grill is riveted to the inside of the bumper, and overlaps on the lower edge, the black bit you can see, and is also held on with these screws. So, you need to undo all 7 to get the bumper off. Do this now, and pop the screws into your jar! You don’t need to worry about the bumper falling down, because you didn’t remove the upper screws yet, remember?!

So finally, with the wheel arches, and the underneath done, now you can take out those 7 upper screws beneath the rubber strip and store them with everything else. As you undo them pay attention to how the bumper moves. It’s under slight tension so will move out towards you as you undo the screws. This means that you must remember to push the bumper firmly in with your knee when you do these back up at the end. Don’t forget!



With the 7 screws removed, you need to lift out this metal bar with the rubber strip on, and put it to one side.

OK, so at this point you may be wondering why your bumper hasn’t fallen off? It’s actually now just held on by tension, there are a few ‘push over’ clips on each upper edge behind the headlight.



By ‘push over’ I mean that a raised area of plastic is pushing against another bit of plastic. There is nothing to remove, you’ve done all that, you simply need to apply some gentle force, whilst holding onto your bumper firmly but carefully. Take a look at the 3 bumps on the right hand picture above. They lock into the 3 holes in the left hand picture. That's what I'm talking about!

My method is roughly as follows. Standing to the left side first of all, with my legs pushing against the bumper to keep it steady. Leaning over the headlight, looking into the wheel arch, fingers between the black plastic wheel arch material and the edge of the bumper. Gently wiggle the bumper, concentrating on the topmost area where the tension is found. Eventually you may need to apply slightly more force and a small pulling out motion – by which I mean you are pulling this part of the bumper away from the car – outwards to the side – but only a tiny bit!

This is really hard to describe, but basically have faith, you only need to pull it out a bit for the tension to release, and you will know when it happens!

You’ve now completely freed one side and the bumper will naturally want to drop to the floor. Hang onto it, keep using your legs to pin it to the car, you don’t want one side down and one up, as this is putting a strain on the other side.

So, shuffle over and repeat the exercise on the right. Once both sides are free, ease the bumper to the floor, close to the car. Don’t pull it away from the car by more than a small distance as your fog lights are still attached by electrical cables that you should see by looking straight down.





It’s easy to work on the car with these still attached, but if you want to remove the bumper completely just disconnect them by locating the plug in the picture below, and pressing together the lower ends, where indicated.





OK, congratulations, you should now have access to the front of your car, a bumper laying to one side, and a jar of bits. Have a look inside the bumper / front of the car / under the bumper to find all those rods that fell inside, remember there are four for each wheel arch.



This is a good opportunity to vacuum all the dead insects and rubbish off of your radiator grill!

Once you’ve finished whatever you wanted to do with the bumper off, replacement is obviously the reverse of all this. Things to pay attention to are ;

1 ) Make sure you found all those rods!

2 ) Reconnect everything you disconnected

3 ) Pick up the bumper and square it up to the car. Overlap the top edge, where the 7 upper screws go under the metal/rubber strip, onto the front edge of the car. This will help to hold up the bumper whilst you get the sides done.

4 ) When you lift it back up, the most important areas are the sides where that final tension occurred. There is a straight edge that you MUST get the edge of the bumper over ( see blue arrow in a previous picture ). Examine the inside of the bumper and the connecting area on the car before you attempt it. Don’t think you’ve got it back on if there is any of this edge showing. Again, something hard to describe, but you’ll know when you’ve got it back properly as it will click into place, all the shutlines will look neat and there will be no gaps. Again, it’s vital you lift the bumper edge up over this connecting area. You will probably need to give the side of the bumper a small whack with the palm of your hand, just to get it into place.

5 ) Holding the bumper on with your legs, shuffle over and clip the other side on.

6 ) Now step back, and ask yourself if it all looks straight and even, and back in place. The tension is holding it on, and it should look perfect before you bother doing all the screws etc back up.

7 ) Once you’re happy, put back the metal strip with the rubber, and get the 7 upper screws back in, remembering to push the bumper in with your knee as you tighten up, to keep it pulled in.

8 ) Almost done. Lay down and do up the 7 screws underneath.

9 ) And finally push the four bodywork clips into the holes in each wheelarch. They will go in very loose. Then get the rods and push one into each clips hole. There will be resistance as it’s quite tight. Knock them in with the end of a screwdriver until they’re flush with the clip.

[img]http://www.johnnice.co.uk/z4/bumper13.jpg/img]

Make sure you’re happy with how it looks, take care on your first drive incase somethings loose ( shouldn’t be ), and account for all your tools – don’t leave anything under the bonnet!

Good luck,
EGO

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      08-10-2007, 09:47 AM   #2
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Does anybody have the pictures that followed this article?

If so I'd really appreciate them :P
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      08-10-2007, 10:01 AM   #3
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You really....don't need them.
If you are stuck pm me, or msn me at Chris7175@hotmail.com I'll talk you through it.
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      02-24-2008, 08:47 PM   #4
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I attempted to remove my front bumper cover today but was unsucessful. The problem that i had was the tension area at the top of the wheel arch, in short, I couldnt get the bumper off. Pics would be the biggest help, If anyone has the origional post with pics, please post them.

Thanks,
Johnathan
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      02-24-2008, 11:45 PM   #5
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Here's a link to my bumper removal DIY that I posted last August -- from when I did my ///M bumper conversion.

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79994
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      02-25-2008, 06:59 AM   #6
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Thanks, Mister Roger, thats exactly what I needed.
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