After going back and forth a few times between the club-link and the mini do more hitch, I eventually ordered a club-link. I just couldn't get over having to move the plate all the time, on any other mini I probably would have gone the other way. I figured I would write up my experience while it is all fresh in my mind.

Anyways, I got the thing a few weeks ago but then got cold feet about doing the install myself because little hidden plastic clips really frustrate me. And, it's going on my wife's car, so screwing it up would cost me a little extra But, after the dealer quoted me $440 (!) to install it, I decided to give it a go. It wasn't too bad - if you're not sure if you can do it, you probably can. I did it all myself, aside from enlisting my wife's help to lift the bumper + hitch back in place which made that go a little smoother.

Getting the plastic bumper cover off was unquestionably the worst part. It took me almost 2 hours - although I think if I did it again I could do it in 15 minutes. It's not that complicated in retrospect but when you don't know where all the plastic bits are or how they fit together and don't want to break anything... it's slow going. I had hoped I could get some kind of look at what I was doing, which is possible in the wheel wells, but not at all possible at the rear of the car, and I wasn't even entirely sure where or how the bumper cover separated from the trim above it.

So, I devised my own scheme which was to remove the tail lights, disconnect the door pistons, and try to remove that entire trim piece with the bumper cover. It all looked good until it wouldn't budge - so I can tell you absolutely DO NOT waste your time doing this. The reason didn't become apparent until later but there are 3 screws under the bumper cover that are completely inaccessible until the bumper cover is off.

So, after that failed, i was kind of despairing and started pulling straight out on the bumper cover, and it pretty much detached in one fell swoop. To my surprise, I didn't even break anything doing this, I mean it didn't take that much force but I was probably applying more than I thought I should have been at that point.

So, at least I thought the trim tool was kind of useless. In the wheel well, I took out the plastic expansion screw fastener, then removed the torx screw on the bottom. Then you can push the wheel well cover out of the way and see what you're dealing with, which I don't think the instructions describe very well. The pieces are held together by these tabs that insert into slots on the other piece (there are a total of 4 of these in fairly close proximity holding the panels together). The "slots" are kind of fat in the middle, and you really have to get behind it and bend the middle part of the "tab" with a screwdriver, then pull the two apart. Trying to pry it with the trim tool like the instructions show doesn't work very well. Once that is done there's one more screw up by the arch, and you're basically done (once you do the other side). There are 2 screws in the middle of the bumper, basically right under the license plate there's a plastic bracket.

There are no more screws, the only thing holding the bumper cover on at this point are a bunch of tabs on top. Like I said, eventually just pulling straight out on the bumper released these with no apparent damage. I didn't do any prying at all.

After that, it's all pretty straighforward - take care of the wires and take off the bumper (btw, I had an extra thing mounted near the bottom of the bumper that wasn't in the pictures, no idea what it was).

I tried to put the club-link on first, then the bumper, but I wasn't having any luck with that. And trying to put both on at the same time was awkward even with my wife helping. So, I used 2 zip-ties in the upper outside holes to hold the two together and that was the most brilliant thing I did all day, it worked perfectly to keep them aligned while raising it into place. When you get it on the studs, put a couple nuts on there and cut the zip-ties before you tighten anything. The only other thing was, the instructions show and describe a different club-link than I got, I drilled 4 holes and attached 4 new bolts instead of 2 as described.

The drilling template works pretty well, although I didn't have a 1-7/8" hole saw so I used a 1-3/4" followed by a bit of dremeling to enlarge the holes. Reassembly is pretty easy, just make sure you hook all the wires back up so you don't have to re-disassemble and do it...

A few (not so great) pictures:

Bumper cover (finally!) off - note failed attempt to remove the upper plastic piece - removing the bumper cover exposed the 3 extra screws:



Finished (sorry, no other intermediate pics):



Bike rack mounted:

 

Nice work! Did the mini fini come with fairly detailed instructions?

 

Yeah, the instructions are pretty good, and honestly there's really not much to it. Like I said, the hardest part is figuring out how to get the plastic bits apart without breaking anything, maybe they could do a better job showing that. It's mostly just tough because you can't see what you're dealing with until you already have it apart.

 

I do have CA. Is the receiver that black thing hanging down right of center in the first picture? I don't remember exactly where it went but in any case, I definitely don't remember anything getting in the way.

 

My report after a couple years - I'm generally happy with it, although if I had it to do over I might try the minidomore hitch instead. I only use the receiver hitch, and with the mini fini that puts things a good bit further behind the car than they would be with the minidomore. It's also considerably cheaper. But, having to take the plate off would be kind of a pain (although I have to do that anyways when I'm using the cargo carrier).

I took back the Thule rack in the picture because the bikes were so far behind the car and swayed around a lot. Next I tried the mini fini rack which was more stable but the design with a single clamp on the top tube is terrible. I ended up with a Swagman XC-2 which works pretty well, I like how the inboard bike is relatively close to the car, the mounting system is pretty good, and it's lightweight and compact compared to most tray/platform racks.

For a cargo carrier I got this which works really great. If you adjust it as far as possible it gets close to the back bumper. I strap this big plastic bag to it and it holds a ton of stuff. It doesn't really obscure the brake lights although I think I'd feel better with a light kit - especially since I've ended up driving at night with no plate light a couple times, just waiting to get pulled over.