How To: Rear Bumper and Tail Light replacement

[KfabR8]

And welcome to another installment of "How To".

Today's lesson is how to take the rear end off your car. Included in this is how to replace the tail lights (programming to be added) and how to replace the exhaust tips in the bumper facia.

Needed tools:
T30 Torx
T25 Torx
10 mm wrench
Flat blade screw driver

A quick note regarding tools:
I use a small electric drill to remove/install the majority of the fasteners. I have many years of experience using said tools and have a good feeling for the torque during tightening. If you've not used power tools and don't have a feeling for how tight the fastener is, DO NOT USE THE POWER TOOL! Most of the fasteners are secured into spring clips. These are tough, but they're also fairly tender and if you get the fastener cross threaded, the clip will eat the threads with glee and then laugh at you.

Also, no matter how tempting, DO NOT USE AN IMPACT WRENCH! These will cause thread issues with the loc-tighted threads. You WILL strip out at least one hole if you go this route.

Take your time and tighten things snug, not tight. Snug is usually about 1/4 turn after the fastener's seated. Tight is more than that and dangerous. The majority of what you'll be working with is plastic and easily damage.

Sorry about some of the pix being bad. It wasn't easy to hold the part and camera at the same time on occasion.

Put the spoiler into the extended/up position.

The Victim. If you have access to a lift, it will make life much easier. This project can be done off of jack stands, but you're going to do a lot of work on your back.


Lift the car off the ground, remove the rear wheels and then remove the rear inner fender liners. If the car's new, the liners are very flexible and when you put things back together, the screw holes in the liner will all align with the holes in the chassis fairly easily. As the car gets older, the liners tend to get a tad stiffer - not seen anything that's lead to cracking, but the pliability of the plastic does drop with age.





The liner's held in with 16 screws. They're all T30 Torx head. Pay attention to the one screw that's short. It goes into the liner from the bottom, down inside the diffuser at the edge.



Remove the TWO T30 head screws from the heat shield. In the picture, there are three screws missing. There's a T25 screw that's found in the upper right hole of the two open holes in the picture. This T25 screw does not need to be removed. I discovered this after the fact...



Next move to the underside of the car and start removing the lower rear belly pan. First you have to remove the two rubber intake ducts. It's easiest to start at the back of the pieces and work forward. The rear's held in with a lip, so it will stay in place as you remove the screws working forward. Working front to back tends to allow the ducts to fall down and be a pain.



Remove the four SHOULDERED T30 screws holding the back edge of the back belly pan.



Remove the remaining screws holding the back belly pan on. There are two screws on each side that are installed horizontally. On each side, one of them is just below the axle, the other is on the back side, pointing rearward. These two are easy to overlook.

The last two screws you want to remove are those on the ends of the center strip. My 2011 has an aluminum washer under each one. If you save these two for the last, it will let you get the whole pan loose w/o fighting it. These two will also be the first to be installed once it's time to put the pan back in place.



I always lay my bolts out in relative position to the part. It allows for easy placement of the correct fastener in the correct spot when it's assembly time.


(the four bright bolts and nuts will not be found on your car - these titanium goodies hold my PPI wing onto the stalks seen under the screens)



Next you'll want to remove the four bolts that hold the end of the bumper facia in place on the fenders. (may as well, you're there) These four bolts (two per side) are found up at the side marker lights. The back one's a bit tricky to get to.



Use a 10mm wrench to remove the four nuts holding the spoiler in place. Pay attention here, as there may be shims between the spoiler and the mount. My car had two thin ones on one side and one thick one on the other.





Remove the two T30 screws, the one T25 and the 10mm nut from the screens found under the ends of the spoiler. I put the T25 screw back into it's place before sitting the screens out of the way.



Next remove the three shouldered T30 fasteners that hold in the top of the upper rear bumper facia. (the part with the camera, R8 and Audi Rings on it).



Remove the plate holder - once again, shouldered T30 fasteners



Remove the plate lights (darn, my 2011 doesn't have LED lights) - a small flat blade screw driver will allow you to push the clip inwards and pull the light housing out of it's home.



The plug has a small clip that has to be pulled back before it will release from the light housing - this sort of plug/clip is found on the majority of the electrical fasteners. You can pull the little clip back with your finger nail easily enough. It will make a little snap sound when it releases. Once pulled, a small push downwards and the plug should come free quite easily. If the plug fights, it's not unlocked yet. Push the clip back into place, push the plug back onto what ever it is you're trying to take it off of and then repeat the clip pull, plug pull. Some will fight, some won't.





Remove the T30 fasteners found under the two plate lights:



Remove the T30 fasteners found on the outer ends of the two recesses of the outer ends of the center cover (same area as the plate lights)



Look down at the left side tail light on the back side of the center cover. There's a grounding clip that needs to be removed. Just pull it downward and release it.



The ends of the center cover are held in place with a ball and socket setup. These are attached to the inner ends of the tail lights. They just pop off with a small tug. You can see the still plugged in ball/socket in the picture above.



Now you'll be able to pull the center cover free and you'll find wires.

Unplug the camera's ground:



Put towels or something between the back bumper and the center cover. The cover's going to end up hanging around for a bit while you fight wires.



Clip the zip-tie, carefully pull the white connector ass'y out of it's little retaining clip - the little green arms are very easily broken, so just a small amount of persuasion is required to get them to let go of the fastener.



The bottom plug is a complete and total pain to remove. It's held in with a one-way style pin mount. Swearing seems to help this piece come out of it's home. Don't yank the wires when you finally get this thing free.



Remove the two pigtails that go to the plate lights from the middle cover:



Here's the ground (mentioned above) that needs to be removed from the center cover. This is found on the left side.



Now remove the two shouldered T30 fasteners found on the top of the bumper facia. Do NOT take these all the way out. Leave them with about two turns of removal left. It is very important that you leave these two in place as shown, otherwise your bumper facia will jump off the car in a minute and find the ground. Not pretty...



Under each light you'll find four holes in the grill work. The outer two are T30 and need to be removed next. Don't jump too terribly much when the whole bumper facia suddenly comes loose - it's supposed to.



The upper forward ends of the bumper facia are located into the upper fender with two small pins. These are a tad tight. Pull the ends of the bumper facia downwards a bit and the bumper facia should just about fall off the car at this point.

Go find a buddy and have them help at this point.

Lift the bumper facia, pull the two shouldered T30 bolts that we left loose and pull the bumper facia away from the car. On the left side there's a large plug. To unhook this plug, follow the instructions given above about removal of the plug from the plate light housings. - this large plug is held onto the bumper facia with a clip in piece. If you'll look carefully, you'll see the little tab that allows the plug to be released from the clip in piece. The plug will slide off of this mount. It's easier to get the plug apart if you go ahead and pull the plug off the mount.



Set the bumper facia off to the side. You've now removed the back end of your car.

Onto the tail lights:

Back to the left light - there's a clip that holds the center cover's ground line in place. This little clip has some serious teeth and holds onto the tab on the tail light with great gusto. I used a pick to remove it - slid the pick against the thin edge of the tab the clip's attached to and work the clip off. Once again, swearing at the piece seems to intimidate it a tad and make it release a little easier. (or not...)



Next I took some tape and placed it along the lower edge of the lights. I then took a square and made measurements for reference when installing the new lights.

I recommend pulling one light and then replacing that light so you can use the non-removed light as a reference for how they fit. - note that I mention this below too.









I wrote my measurements down on the tape for easy reference.

Remove the two T25 bolts found in the tabs on the underside of the tail lights:





Take a 10mm wrench and remove the nut off the inner, upper mounting stud of the light:



---------------------- end first part -----------------------

[KfabR8]

Go back under the fender and find the plug that operates the tail light. Remove the plug (clip pull required). Use your 10mm wrench to remove the nut seen just above the plug, behind the two wire runs. On the right side of the car it's slightly obscured by a hose and a bit tricky to see.



You can now remove the tail lights from your car.Set the lights down on the bench and pull off the two stud/stand offs. These are held onto the top of the light body with double sided sticky tape. Mine was new enough that they just popped off with little force. An older car, that's seen many heat cycles, will need to have this piece of double sided sticky tape replaced. Install the stand offs onto the new lights.





---------------------------------------
Side project:

While I had the bumper off, I got rid of those horrid chrome tips and replaced them with black tips. Now I just have to rid the front grill of it's chrome strip and all will be good.

To remove the tips, just pull the four (per tip) T30 screws. The tips will fall out.









If anyone is interested in the chrome tips, let me know. You can HAVE them, just cover shipping.

When installing the new tips, put all four screws in loosely then snug them down. Once again, no ham-fisting these tight.

end of side project
---------------------------------------


To install your new tail lights, pretty much just reverse what you did pulling things off.

I started out by putting the light in place and then loosely putting the two nuts back on and then the long T25 bolts back in the ears.

Snug the fasteners down and start using the measurements you took from the previous lights. You can adjust the fit as needed by turning the backing nuts on the two top studs and the two threaded inserts the long T25 bolts run though. Before you take the first set of tail lights out, pay a lot of attention to how they're mounted, the clearance between the lights and the fenders, how much they're recessed, etc. Do one light at a time. This will allow you to reference the one that's not been removed yet.



Once you have the lights installed, start reassembling everything.

I had to loosen/tighten things quite a bit. Use the two lower T25 bolts to get the placement of the lights in the hole. I'd let the two nuts on the studs (upper side of lights) stay just loose enough to let the assembly slide, but not move in/out. Once I got the lights in place and the gap between the upper fender and the lights uniform, I'd tighten the T25's

Once this location was set, I went back and messed with getting the depth of the top of the light set appropriately via the 10mm wrench and the nuts on the studs on the top of the lights. Once again, doing one light at a time so you can reference the other light is highly recommended.

While you're back under the fender tightening the nut, plug the tail light back in.

Don't forget about the grounding wire on the left side.

Told you this thing has teeth!





I'm pretty anal about wire harnesses and how they're installed.

OEM Audi (not acceptable):



K-fab Style:



Time to put the bumper back on.
Place two shouldered T30 fasteners up on the top of the car's back end.
You'll need these in a minute.



Get your buddy to help you again here. Pick up the bumper facia and place it behind the car, closely. Plug the bumper harness back in and if you pulled the plug from it's mount, remount the plug ass'y back onto the mount. It slides in place and will click when it's home and locked.

Fit the bumper facia up on the back of the car. It will fight a tad and then just sort of slip into place. Once it does, take those two T30 fasteners you placed on the upper back end and thread them in place loosely. You can now let go of the bumper facia and it won't attempt to attack your feet and/or the ground.



While the bumper facia's still loose, fish the wires (seen 3 pix above) up from the middle back of the car through the holes in the bumper. - don't forget to do this, otherwise you'll be taking part of the bumper facia back off (which is a pain and added about 10 minutes of unnecessary work for me).

Now it's time to start fastening the bumper facia down.

As mentioned earlier there are a couple of small pins that locate the ends of the bumper against the fender.



Align these pins with the holes and then loosely install the two T30 shouldered screws on the inside of the bumper in the fender well. You'll want to tighten the farther back screws to the point of being slightly snug - this will help with the threading of two other T30 fasteners:



These two T30 fasteners tighten the bumper up against the fender (don't tighten them yet):





Now go back to the grills. Get the four T30 fasteners threaded in place, but not tight yet. You may have issues getting the two outer fasteners started if you don't lift up on the bumper facia a tad (or have those two rear T30 fasteners almost snug). You need to close the gap between the facia and the upper part of the fender to get the grill's outer T30 fasteners started.

When you have all eight fasteners installed, then tighten them all down. Do the two outer grill fasteners, then the four in the fender well, then finish with the two inner grill fasteners.

Put the plate mount back on.

Tighten the two loose shouldered T30 fasteners (on top) that have been holding the bumper facia from jumping.

While I had the car up in the air, I went ahead and reinstalled the rear belly pan, the scoops, the fender liners and the wheels. You don't need to be under the car anymore, so you may as well get that aspect done. (I torque my wheels to 93 lb-ft, for what it's worth).

You should have wires hanging out of the facia above the plate mount. Run the two with the larger black plugs through the holes that the plate lights mount in the upper cover, run the camera plugs under the bumper facia and back into the opening for the plug mounts. Put the camera ground back on.

Plug the three lines back together, push the black rubber plug back in it's hole (this may/may not work - depends on if the tree broke off when you pulled it out), clip the white plug back into the little green fingers and zip-tie the long black plug back in place. Notice on this plug there is a dedicated pair of ribs that the zip-tie fits between. Clip the end of the zip-tie, please.

Before you get much further, plug the plate lamps back in and go check your back up camera (turn ignition on, put in reverse). You want to make sure everything's in working order before you do final tightening. If something's not working, go back and check your work for loose and/or unplugged items.

Plug the ends of the center cover back onto the balls found on the inner, lower corners of the tail lights.



Put the center cover back in place - lift the upper end tips over the 6mm studs.

Lightly tighten all fasteners and check the alignment of the cover to the tail lights. You can adjust the ball/socket assembly on the inner lower corner of the tail lights to get the lower corner of the cover aligned with the lights and the 6mm stud found on top can be adjusted to make sure the upper surface of the center cover stays aligned with the fender's surface. Once again, this is one of those take your time things. Getting the lights in and everything back to looking like a Factory Fit takes some patience.

Tighten all the fasteners down now.

Put your spoiler back on - don't forget the shims if you had any.

Try to use the witness marks left by the bolts on the underside of the spoiler mounting mechanism. Lower the spoiler and check the alignment/clearance of the spoiler to the engine cover, the fenders and the bumper facia. You may have to move the spoiler around a bit to get it all set.

Tighten the four nuts and you're done.

Go open an adult beverage and pat yourself on the back.

Took me a little over four hours to do this. Documenting and taking notes slows me down a bit.

[CALBenzo]

Just awesome! I can't even find the time to do my little lighted sill install writeup which is certainly going to pale by comparison.

[wickedr8]

AWESOME write up man....thanks!!!

ANDY

[NVRL8R8]

You make me feel INcomplete.

[tjandegi]

I have taken the rear bumper off and followed your detailed steps. I'm trying to get to the exhaust, any notes on how to remove heat shields? I see tons of screws and bolts, just not sure which to remove.