Bumper Removal for Curt Hitch Install on a 2001 BMW 530i  

2001 BMW 530i. It is identical to the car in your video. Thank you for your help. I took the 11179 hitch and wiring to a professional hitch installer in Traverse City, Michigan. This is a boating area and he really is experienced at hitch installation. However, he abandoned the job after about an hour because he could not manage to remove the cars rear bumper. He used Curts printed instructions provided with the hitch. He found and removed the six main bolts, as per Step 1, but he may have been unable to make sense of their instructions step 2. It says At the rear of the wheel opening outside car locate and remove two clips, gravel shield, three plastic pin fasteners per side. Bumper assembly with fascia should now slide off to the rear. It wouldnt move. To his credit, instead of banging on it, he abandoned the job. From watching your video I think I understand what Step 2 was trying to say. The idea is to release the bumper from the splash guard. Three plastic rivets hold the guard in place, but also according to Curt anyway there are two clips. There is no mention of clips in the excellent eTrailer video. Are there cotter clips in there? Circlips? In looking at a couple of installation threads on the internet I notice there are also sometimes additional bolts holding the bumper, hidden under trim strips. There is no mention of these hidden bolts in the Curt instructions, but I can imagine hidden bolts would keep the bumper from sliding off. I guess the questions are these: 1 Are there clips holding the splash guard as Curt indicates? Where and what kind? 2 Are there hidden bolts under the plastic trim strips of the 530i? Thank you for your insights.

asked by: Michael C