Front mat clips - wrenching out and ramming in

haydnw2 · Feb 5, 2020

I've just bought some genuine VW rubber mats for the front of our T5.1. It's come with different clips to those already installed, and instructions which are of note only because of their brevity. Has anyone any suggestions as to how I should remove the existing beige clips, and whether the newly-provided clips will really cut the mustard and just screw into whatever my floor is made of? I'm dubious! I would set about the existing clips with a pair of pliers, but have only owned the van for four days so don't really want to get violent with it yet! This may be one of those scenarios where I'm simply not applying enough brute force though...

Existing clips:

New clip:

WelshGas · Feb 5, 2020

haydnw2 said:
I've just bought some genuine VW rubber mats for the front of our T5.1. It's come with different clips to those already installed, and instructions which are of note only because of their brevity. Has anyone any suggestions as to how I should remove the existing beige clips, and whether the newly-provided clips will really cut the mustard and just screw into whatever my floor is made of? I'm dubious! I would set about the existing clips with a pair of pliers, but have only owned the van for four days so don't really want to get violent with it yet! This may be one of those scenarios where I'm simply not applying enough brute force though...

Existing clips:
View attachment 54991

New clip:
View attachment 54992

The new clips should just screw in. The Original clips, are you sure the top isn’t a cap with a screw underneath. It does look as if it can be prised off.

haydnw2 · Feb 6, 2020

A fair observation! But I've just been out and had a poke around and it seems it's just a lip in the moulding. I tried prising the whole thing up out of the floor, but it's proving quite resistant. I'll see if any other tips are dropped here, otherwise I'll just get brutal with it and see what happens!

Bramco · Feb 6, 2020

It's been a long time since we got our van with the rubber mats. Seem to remember that we just tried them on the existing pegs and they seemed ok, so didn't bother changing the pegs.