Clip for Upper Grille Moulding on Hood

[Andy9147]

I have a 2013 R56 base Cooper. The girl molding came off in a car wash, and the clips were all broken. I found replacement clips for my year and model, but I am not clear on how they reattach to the molding. I would appreciate help on how to do this. Thanks

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Been flogging my memory for the past few minutes about how I replaced mine, and it just isn't showing up. In my case, though, it was the trim piece itself that broke instead of just the clips.

Hang on, let me check some pictures... Yeah, it's starting to come back.

There are two kinds of clips, the black ones and the white ones.

The black ones slide onto the plastic that bridges between the edges of the molding. When the molding is mounted to the car, they simply push into place in the square holes in the front of the panel.

The white ones are on the ends and a couple more centrally located. Those have screws that thread into them from the other side of the panel that the molding attaches to. The white clips push into square openings in a plastic part of the molding that is specifically there to hold them in.

I remember it being fairly obvious how everything goes together, except for the black clips sliding onto the flat piece on the back of the molding. From your question, and the fact that on my car it was the plastic of the molding itself that failed, I think that it might not be the clips that failed on your car.

Check the images here and see if any of the parts that hold the clips on are missing:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/51132751040M26.htm?pn=51-13-2-751-040-M26&bt=Y&fs=0&SVSVSI=6373


Here is a view (from another vendor, sorry boss!) of the place on the end where the white clip goes:




I hope this helps!

--DD