Sedan Rear Bumper Removal

[Phrost]

Hey guys, been real busy lately but I needed to get this off to get it repaired and resprayed tomorrow. There are no DIY's anywhere for this, so here you go.

The good news is you don't have to remove the rear wheels at all to get the bumper off! Here is what you'll need:

T30 torx driver
T25 torx driver
10mm socket with ratchet

1. Fold down both rear seats. There is a bracket between both of them that you're going to have to take off. The plastic cover comes right off, so just pull. There is a metal piece beneath it that is held in with a T30 torx screw.


After you remove that bracket: take either seat, lift up on the side where that bracket was holding it down, then slide it toward the opposite side of the car. The whole back of the seat should come loose, and will be held on by one wire if your seats are heated so be careful with that. Remove both seat backs


2. There are 4 metal tie-down hooks on the floor. Snap all of them upright, and remove 2 T25 torx screws from each of the four hooks.


3. Now look at the plastic trim against the rear bumper, where the trunk latches onto. There are two gold 10mm nuts holding this on. Remove the two nuts, then force the rough plastic piece straight up. It is held down with clips so you'll have to tug.

4. Now we're going to remove both carpeted sides of the trunk. There are two black plastic push pins on the top you'll have to pry out. Then start behind the rear seats, and pull the carpet toward the center like so


Stand by the trunk and work the carpet out. It's easy, but there is a metal clip toward the top center (you can see) so make sure you look at how you have to slide the bottom out first to not rip the carpet.

Also, there are two bare metal clips on each side. You don't pull these out, you slide them to either side (up/down). Metal clips are shown here


5. The carpet on both side are the same, so take your time with those. However, there is the big cubby hole on the driver side that will need to come out.


It is held in with 4 10mm screws, one by each corner. If you have satellite radio or not it doesn't matter, the wires are long enough for you to remove this cubby hole thing and place it aside.

6. Now it's time to take out the nuts holding the bumper in. There are a total of 5 10mm nuts on each side. Take all 10 out and put them somewhere safe


7. Move down by the fender liners, and remove the bottom 3 T25 torx screws holding the liner in. If you only have a long torx driver you'll have to go in at an angle, and if that doesn't work you may have to remove the rear wheels. I had a T25 torx bit I attached to a socket that worked nicely


Remove the bottom 3 torx screws from each side, peel the fender liner back, and remove a total of 8 more (4 on each side) T25 torx screws holding the bumper on.


Once all of these screws are out, tug on the end of the bumper away from the car. There are 5 snaps on each side you're going to have to pull out.


8. Look under the rear bumper, where the valence attaches. There are 2 T25 torx screws that will come right out. You can see them if you just bend down and look up, they're right by the edge.

Once all the snaps are out and all screws/nuts holding it on, the whole bumper will pull off the car with no wires or anything attached to it. That's it!

Great success

[3.2some]

good job bro, suprised you didn't heat gun it off........hey admin dude, can you sticky this to the DIY section.....thank you

[Phrost]

haha no, this DIY was too easy to include a heat gun.

Edited for sweet photobucket arrows and stuff I added

[Sly Raskal]

Thanks for the write-up, but did you decide to take the bumper off for the hell of it or did you do a mod with this? :P

[cstarky15]

way to go. and good job on getting all the photos and making them all work! If i ever need to take off my bumper i'll follow your DIY.

[3.2some]

Thanks for the write-up, but did you decide to take the bumper off for the hell of it or did you do a mod with this? :P

read the top....again

[Phrost]

did you decide to take the bumper off for the hell of it or did you do a mod with this? :P

I took it off for 4 reasons.

1. When I bought the car used, the guy who leased it obviously got rear-ended and the dealership did the cheapest, shittiest job ever trying to fix it. Orange peel is really bad, you can see where they masked around all the cracks, and there are big "runs" in the paint where the bumper creases because they didn't even paint the whole thing.

2. Because of the shitty paint job, I had a big section of paint chip off while washing it. I put touch up paint on it for now


3. Last winter, some kid slid into me at my friends house and never told me. I confronted him the next day and he said he "looked at my bumper and didn't see any damage". He had an 80's truck, and he pushed me car a good foot out of my parking spot. It was dark so I never noticed. Hi everyone!


Definitely needs a respray, but the paint is also cracked (from stretching) so it has to be repaired and reinforced from behind. When painting a bumper, it is much easier (cheaper labor) and will look better around the edges/cracks since it doesn't have to be masked off.

4. Robie told me to

[Sly Raskal]

read The Top....again

Doh!

[Sly Raskal]

I took it off for 4 reasons.

1. When I bought the car used, the guy who leased it obviously got rear-ended and the dealership did the cheapest, shittiest job ever trying to fix it. Orange peel is really bad, you can see where they masked around all the cracks, and there are big "runs" in the paint where the bumper creases because they didn't even paint the whole thing.

2. Because of the shitty paint job, I had a big section of paint chip off while washing it. I put touch up paint on it for now


3. Last winter, some kid slid into me at my friends house and never told me. I confronted him the next day and he said he "looked at my bumper and didn't see any damage". He had an 80's truck, and he pushed me car a good foot out of my parking spot. It was dark so I never noticed. Hi everyone!


Definitely needs a respray, but the paint is also cracked (from stretching) so it has to be repaired and reinforced from behind. When painting a bumper, it is much easier (cheaper labor) and will look better around the edges/cracks since it doesn't have to be masked off.

4. Robie told me to

Yea, sorry, I completely missed that first line in your post about needing to take it off for repair.

What else does ROBIE tell you to do?

[Phrost]

What else does ROBIE tell you to do?

People with Mk5 GTI's have their Fast, and I have my Robie. He rides with me wherever I go, sharing our magical adventures and giving me pieces of his incredible wisdom as we ride down the road of life together.

[Phrost]

Also I just wanted to point out, taking out the rear reflectors is extremely easy. All one has to do is remove the 7 T25 torx screws from each fender liner, pull out the snaps, then easily snap out the reflector. I'm not even pulling the bumper out all the way in this picture


People used to ask this question all the time and the response was always, "sorry you'll have to remove the rear bumper. Not gonna happen." Now we have proof it is easy

[Zebman]

Does anybody make smoked reflectors for the back? Do the front ones fit the back?

[Phrost]

No, the front and rear reflectors are different. Picture courtesy of ddfunkt: (front reflectors on top, rear on bottom)


I have never seen smoked rear reflectors for sale, but people tint their oem reflectors. Lamin-X or other brand tint can work, and I sprayed mine with NiteShades.

[Doctor]

Great DIY. Pretty easy, but helpful nevertheless. Great

[redlabel81]

Good DIY. Robie knows his shit!

[georgio3gr]

Nice DIY... But what if the rear seats cannot fold down as mine???

[AudiTFSI3o3]

sweet write up. I was hoping to find a way to take off the rear

[A4A4A4]

Nice DIY... But what if the rear seats cannot fold down as mine???

Are you sure your rear seats don't fold down? Do you not have the handles right beside the rear headrests?

[s-man]

whered u get robie??

[Doctor]

Are you sure your rear seats don't fold down? Do you not have the handles right beside the rear headrests?

Yes. Folding rear seats is an optional extra.

[georgio3gr]

Yes. Folding rear seats is an optional extra.

+1 Unfortunately my car does not have folding rear seats...

[Doctor]

+1 Unfortunately my car does not have folding rear seats...

On our order, noone even mentioned it @ the dealership....
Having added more than 10k of extras, 100euros wouldnt have been anything really...But hey...
Greek stealership FTW....

[Phrost]

Nice DIY... But what if the rear seats cannot fold down as mine???

I was unaware folding rear seats was an option. If you're don't fold, look for bolts from inside the trunk or something. I'm not positive the rear seat backs have to come out, but it really made removing the side pieces a lot easier.

whered u get robie??

Radio Shack in like 1982 lol. I have one more in mint condition that works, I'll ship it to the highest bidder

[Doctor]

I was unaware folding rear seats was an option. If you're don't fold, look for bolts from inside the trunk or something. I'm not positive the rear seat backs have to come out, but it really made removing the side pieces a lot easier.

Yeap, they dont.

[s-man]

really, wered you get him

[toaster]

dude, robie eats CHANGE!!!

...he's gonna get sick and shit all over your car!!!

ahhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Sharkfin]

Necro-bumpage, I will be using this to install my DTM rear this week.

[Doctor]

^^ piece of cake, dont worry....very straight forward...

[Sharkfin]

That rear seats/wiring thing worries me, but other than that it should be cake. I'm guessing about a half hour total?

[Phrost]

If you take your time. Once you figure out what the be gentle with and what to rip out, it takes about 15 minutes.

And don't worry, that wire is only for heated rear seats. But either way, there's plenty of slack where it isn't really in the way. Just set them aside

[Sharkfin]

What does the wire connect to? Can I not worry about that? I'm switching complete bumper covers here.

[Phrost]

I didn't see where the harness connect was. But don't worry about it, it's long enough to give you enough slack to slide the seat backs aside. The only purpose of removing the seat backs is so you can smoothly remove the carpeted side panels if I recall. Only takes a minute.

[Doctor]

I didn't see where the harness connect was. But don't worry about it, it's long enough to give you enough slack to slide the seat backs aside. The only purpose of removing the seat backs is so you can smoothly remove the carpeted side panels if I recall. Only takes a minute.

IF and only IF, your rear seats' back is folding downwards...otherwise...it is not so easy...

[Operator]

And I shall begin using this today.

[Operator]

How did you guys remove the silver trim piece (near the trunk)?