Rear bumper cover removal question

What is the trick for removing the two bottom center fasteners on the rear bumper cover?

Yesterday I pulled the rear bumper cover most of the way off in order to inspect the energy absorber (ie, styrofoam) on the bumper (which might have been damaged when my daughter backed into another car, but turned out to be OK). In typical Mazda fashion this involved the usual hall of mirrors: to remove bumper cover -> remove tail lights (which cover a fastener on each side) -> remove inner trunk side trim (to access the electrical plug for the taillights) -> remove inner trunk center trim (which overlaps side trim). All of that went fine, and luckily my neighbor had a torx driver for the two bolts on the top center of the bumper cover.

However, the two fasteners on the bottom of the bumper cover defeated me. Those were wide flat nylon (I think) with a small Phillips head X in the middle. They would not screw out. They turned a bit, but seemed to go round and round, and started to strip so I stopped and retightened them. Thankfully with everything else loose I could pull the bumper cover down enough to inspect the absorber. It is possible that these two fasteners are not stock parts, since the rear bumper cover/absorber were replaced several years ago by a body shop after the car was rear ended.

those sound like those annoying 2-step plastic pop tabs. a few of mine are stripped, lol i just end up yanking them and they come right off.

Brian_K said:

those sound like those annoying 2-step plastic pop tabs. a few of mine are stripped, lol i just end up yanking them and they come right off.

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These appear to be one piece, not the kind where an inner core must come out first to release the outer core. I suppose if push came to shove one could remove these destructively and then find a suitable replacement at the auto parts store.

Bump, did you ever figure this out? Or does anyone know how to remove them? I've been following the Factory Service Manual and in the Body chapter on page 09-10-07,the part is number 3 for the Protege5 5HB instructions and they are just as pasedena described them. They are nylon fasteners with a Phillips impression, but I instantly stripped out the first one. So what's the best way to remove these things?

I'm in the middle of removal and really hoping to get this figured out soon.

They look pretty similar to this:


http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Push_Type_Bumper_Retainer_11mm_Length_p/a15366.htm