Removing foglight surrounds on 6C

[Mikeso51]

I need to remove the foglight surrounds on my BlueGt to change the DRL bulbs, and I would be grateful for any tips. The instructions I have seen say to pull the surround off using use the wheel nut cover removal hook tool. However this simply doesn't work. It needs a lot more distributed force. After a lot of struggling and pulling with my fingers after flexing the surround away from the foglight glass I managed to get one off, but at the expense of cracking the surround at one end. What the secret to easy damage-free removal?

TIA
Mike

[RUM4MO]

Well, I have done this a couple of years ago and so has Veteran, just one thing, does Blue GT have the same bumper as other smaller engined 6C Polo, I ask that as I thought one version of 6C used a 6R front bumper.

If it has the same front bumper, I can confirm that lots of force is needed with the possibility that the trim will get broken slightly - all other memories have been wiped I'm afraid!

[27_craig]

Yes I can confirm that the 6c BlueGT does have the bumper from the 6R GTI.

You use the tool in the boot that is used to pull the wheel but covers off, there is a little hole in the fog light surrounds that you use the tool to pull on, they should then pull off but needs quite a tug to do, and as already said, some of the clips may break.


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[Mikeso51]

Seems like a pretty poor design if the trims can’t be removed without damage. I wonder what the main dealers do? Just fit replacements? I don’t imagine they are cheap.

Mike

[fleagal]

I removed mine with the hook and can confirm that it is a poor design and that a lot of force was needed. However, they didn't break which seemed surprising at the time.

My GTi is a 2015 MY and I removed them about a year ago, in cold weather from memory. Whether any of that makes a difference is anybody's guess.

[Aquavalver]

It didn't seem too hard on my Blue GT, like said use the puller tool (thats also for the wheel nuts etc) in the holes and pull hard, this will remove it partially, then put your fingers in the gaps where it has been loosened and pull again. Have done this a few times and nothing broken. Whether it might help using a hair-dryer to warm it up and make it less brittle, I don't know, but like I said, I've had nothing broken so far.

There are vidoes on youtube also if you want to check or see how they've done it

[Mikeso51]

Thanks all,

Sounds as though I maybe need to be a bit more forceful with the hook in the first stage. And be prepared for some damage!
I’ve seen the youtube video, but my surround was a lot harder to remove than the one shown. Maybe it had been on and off a few times, whereas mine had never been removed from new.

[veteran]

Yes, the difficulty here is that, once more, we have a really naff piece of design from VW (I'm fast going off the company). For some years now it seems they've been following a trend in the car industry for avoiding the use of metal screws to fix pieces of trim to the vehicle, and instead to rely on built-in plastic clips wherever possible. Done in the right way, this can work, but when driving down assemblyline costs as low as possible and paring the design of the trim part down to a crude level, is fraught with later issues. The trouble is that in order to then not turn the car into a rattle-bin, or for bits to fall off the car at the slightest impact, the clip fit has to be very strong. This unfortunately means hell for anyone who then wants or needs to temporarily remove the piece of trim, as the forces required will, nine times out of ten, break the component. When I tried to remove the foglight trim on my own 6C Match that's precisely what happened and I had to subsequently perform a glue repair.

It may well be that workshop staff at VW dealerships have acquired a knack for removing this trim without destroying it, in most cases. But I guess that if they break it and the car is out of warranty the cost of a new surround simply gets charged to the customer anyway. Probably the more times you remove that piece of trim successfully, the more the knack will develop. But if you're doing it yourself, as a first-time, one-off job, it's going to be especially difficult.

I agree that that 'ringpull' tool for the wheelnut covers is unsuited to this particular job, though aquavalver's tips would be worth exploring.

Incidentally, on my Match there's a small hole in the actual bumper itself, just to the side of the foglight assembly. I discovered that this was a deep opening for a torx screwdriver with which to laterally adjust the foglight. (You have to make the adjustment blindly). If you've a similar hole on your GT, don't mistake this for a fixing screw of the foglight.

[CarbonChaos]

Try here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ni4r8z ... ture=share