The bumper has to come off!!

 

no it does not

i have had mine off twice

scott

 

I tried to go at the front a couple times but I saw that I was going to marr something if I kept at it. I've since removed the front end to install an FMIC and could see that removing them from the front as i was trying to do would have been very sketchy and I likely would have broken something. Clips, etc. werent where i was thinking they were and the ducts on my car are in there TIGHT. I decided against painting the ducts afterall even though I'd removed the aero kit. My advice is to remove the front aero kit to get to the ducts. At least if you have a 2012 JCW.

 

How do you get the pop fastners off of the underside of the bumper cover? I have a 2013 and am trying to get the bumper off to remove the front badge.

I know that there were some change between the 2012 and 2013, but I would assume that they are fairly similar. I watched the Helix video which shows a step-by-step process of removing the bumper cover, but my pop fastners seem to be recessed and difficult to get to.

 

I've taken my bumper off before and I have used something like this:

 

we call that a "nose picker" in aviation, it is used to remove cotter pins

scott

 

That Helix video is a bit outdated but similar to the newer JCW front ends in many regards. The main difference is 3 or 4 very small fasteners along the underside of the front lip. They aren't popit fasteners either but work similarly. Instead of popping out the rivet portion you unscrew it via Philips head (IIRC). Problem is they're tiny and the threaded portion will often spin the whole fastener making it impossible to remove. It doesn't help that the holes to reach these are very small. Aside from that, on the underside, there are two larger metal fasteners total. one on each end and two larger popits toward the center. Everything else is pretty much just like the HELIX video

Here's a pic of the small threaded pop fasteners I talked about:

 

Thanks TV! I was able to get two out of the three Philips fasteners off. Fortunately the one that spun and wouldn't come out was on the passenger side, so I was able to pivot the bumper cover and remove the badge with some effort.

 

Glad to help!

What I thinks funny is you wouldn't think those three little tiny things could hold a front bumper so solidly. Don't feel bad, I had to mangle the last one with an angled pair of needle nose pliers to get it out since I'd stripped out the soft plastic Philips head on it. I ended up using a dremel to grind a small flat head slot in it to put it back in. It worked great but Next time I remove the front I'm going to try and find some equivalent size pop-it fasteners to replace those things. Much simpler!

 

If you really wanted to, you can buy a replacement from Sewell (#14 I think). Either that, or go by your dealer and see if the parts department carries them. I actually had the expanding piece of one of my Philips ones fall inside the bumper cover. Fortunately it came out when I backed it out the drive way. Good idea on the Dremel. I may give it a try on my rounded off one (I don't think I caused it).

 

Here are some pics showing the tabs. The bumper does not need to come off. I just replaced both of mine by using a plastic wedge thing I had laying around. In the first pic the three tabs must be popped first then the bottom and then it will come out. Be careful as to much force will break on of those three tabs. Take your time and go slow, using a credit card or something similar to protect the other part, as stated by Mymojomini, as you pry.

 

R60 brake ducts appear to be easier than the R56!

 

R60 ducts are definitely easier to remove than the R56-R59! After doing both I was shocked how easy the R60/61 was.

 

Just to confirm, the only way to cleanly replace there R56 ducts is by removing the bumper?

 

going to tackle this soon (ish) unless I have to remove the bumper. this thread is definitely helpful, thanks!

 

Unless you have a Countryman the bumper has to come off!

 

Hi all a bit late to the show? I noticed that my bottom grill where my ducts are located is on piece with the ducts, does this sound right or did I not notice where it splits, I have a JCW 2012 coupe. Any advice would be great the video rocks by the way!

 

How about taking the wheel off and pulling down the well liner to reveal the ducts???

 

Did mine kite blue , I had ice/sand damage to bumper from ice storm and the BMW body shop did them for free when I asked. I used to have chrome ones but moved those to wifes MINI. I did break a tab removing my black ones so was more carefull the next time.

 

I did mine a few days ago with no removal of the front bumper or broken clips just a lot of patience!

 

Amazing! Can you go into a little more detail?

 

You will need to remove the top grill, undo the bumper screws under the grill (2), if you have the aero kit remove the plastic cover that goes around the lower grill, it's placed on there with clamps and just pressure. Once you do all of that remove the clamps off there lower grill (push in not out) then the clamps around the ducts. I didn't use anything to remove the clamps, since a flat head might scratch the plastic. Once all the claps are out maneuver everything to one side pushing just the grill to the right or left to give you space to remove one duct once you get one off, the grill will come off. To get everything in, place one of the ducts on the bumper and the other clamped on the grill. Slide the lower grill in and be careful to not break any clamps. This will take some time and patience but that's how I did it. I bought the red ducts from outmotoring!

 

Thanks. Well done!

 

Praise be to you, I want to buy the red ducts from Outmotoring as well but I really, really don't want to remove my entire front bumper just to replace the brake ducts.

 

We have the JCW GP2 red ducts here: they look very nice in person. 51747330891KT

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/51747330891KT/



Sounds like it just needed some finessing to get around the bumper removal from the top grille section.