Morning all. Has anyone done this recently? I’ve removed five nuts and managed to break a plastic clip, before gently trying to lift it, but nothing moved.

I thought I would try a small piece of wood resting on the bolt inside the tailgate and attempt to gently tap them out.

Any better ideas gratefully received before I break it!

Sounds similar to my GTI spoiler, which had five studs coming into the boot area behind the trim,all 10 mm nuts, once they were off I had to tease the spoiler off with a plastic trim tool. Took a bit of force levering it up at one end first
And I used a little bit of white spirit as it seems like adhesive pads had been used. Or if not adhesive then they had become sticky over time.

Good luck.

I just happen to have a 1990 216Gsi (R8) hatch lip spoiler on my bench, this is what I can see.

There are 5 threaded studs. M6

What appears to be a location point for a plastic clip at each end of the spoiler (mine are missing/broken off).

And possibly another location for a plastic clip between threaded studs 2 and 3 (counting from the driver's side). Again mine appears to have disappeared/broken off?

There was also possibly a bead of sealant along the top edge.

Hope this helps.

Thanks chaps, I’m going in!

Well, it’s still stuck to the car!

I noticed another plastic clip right at the end on the nearside which I’ve managed to destroy. It appears to be too brittle to save.

Although there was some movement, it still won’t let go. Perhaps I’m being too timid if cash I wreck it?!

Topcat Tomcat wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:47 am I noticed another plastic clip right at the end on the nearside which I’ve managed to destroy.

Perhaps save the bits to reconstruct as a pattern for some enterprising individual to 3D print?

Will do...........if I can remember........and I can remove it!

I eventually managed to get it off after a bit of a struggle! In the end, I thought sod it and attacked whatever was holding it on with a knife and chisel!


It turned out to be a double sided sticky strip. Does anyone know if it’s original or was added after the boot lid was damaged?


There also appears to be some silicone sealant holding the inner strip in position under the actual spoiler. Again, is this original and would it be better to leave it as it is, or clean it off and start again?


As always, any advice will be gratefully received! Thanks.

Topcat Tomcat wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:27 am As always, any advice will be gratefully received! Thanks.

It's just a two-part plastic moulding where the inner face carrying the 5 studs is glued into the outer shell.

The original spoiler had no silicone sealant or any other visible glue or filler of any kind - the inner face was very neatly bonded to the outer shell and you couldn't see any glue. It looked like a single-part moulding when new - it isn't obvious that it's a two-part glued component.

The spoiler is hollow throughout.

The 5 rubber washers pushed down onto the studs are original. You can cut new ones from rubber sheet if you like (they don't have to be round!) and poke smaller holes in the centre so they're a tighter fit over the studs. They're suppose to stop rainwater following the studs to inside the hatch and rusting the nuts holding it on.

The only other rubber padding should be thin strips (about 6-7mm wide from memory) along the top and lower edges of the inside face, to stop the spoiler digging into the hatch paint when bolted up tight.

This used to be called the spoiler fitting kit and I ordered a couple when I refitted my new spoiler. Rimmer Bros is still showing part code DYN10010 - now described as the gasket for the lip spoiler. It's under £2 but they'll charge you a fiver for delivery probably. May be worth a punt if you want the official rubber padding back on your spoiler. If this is the right part, you'll get a reel of between 1 and 2 metres of rubber strip with adhesive on one side to attach to the rear face of the spoiler. It goes really close to the edge at the top and bottom, just say 1mm in so it only can't be seen when the spoiler is fitted to the car. I believe the lower edge had several short pieces placed strategically along its length - not a continuous piece like the top edge has. The kit only has enough to replicate the same pattern, hence why I purchased two and actually did a continuous strip along the bottom edge and even fashioned strip around the edge of the central dip that accommodates the rear badge.

The holes in the back face at each end and the one in the middle are meant to be there, and they don't accommodate any clips. They're just moulding holes!

Spoilers would eventually de-bond and the back shell drops off the inner stud-face, leaving just the latter seized to the car. Many people repaired this by splodging loads of silicone sealant on the stud strip and pushing the outer shell back on and taping it up until the bond set. Horrible solution but it worked. In fact, if you have to bond the inner face and outer shell back together, using the car as a jig is a good idea as the inner face is sort of a tight fit into the outer shell and trying to G-glamp the bond areas together whilst your chosen glue dries is a nightmare, often resulting in a visible warping across the top of the spoiler. So the bathroom sealant trick whilst the broken spoiler is on the car isn't such a bad idea.

I did rebuild my original spoiler off the car using small modelling G clamps to hold the bonding faces together whilst the glue set. I used Araldite standard (slow sure). I did get some visible warping across the top face of the spoiler when refitted to the car. I pushed the back face back into the outer shell quite tightly - possibly tighter than the original construction. The spoiler lasted years but I replaced it in the end. When I took it off the car, the force-fitting of the back plate into the outer shell had obviously caused a lot of plastic stress and the back plate pretty much fell apart as I took the spoiler off the car, as if someone had hit it in several places with a hammer and just shattered the plastic!

Also note than a lot of spoilers dig into the 3-5mm of hatch paintwork right at the end of the spoiler on both sides, causing an annoying paint flaking to occur. Happened to me after an expensive respray and I thought using a new spoiler would stop this happening. It didn't.

I've used a needle file to take off plastic at an angle going in at the sides of the spoiler to create some relief, without spoiling or altering the profile of the curve that follows the hatch soft-angular curve from the top face to the back face. Also consider adding hard rubber packing (a millimetre or two in thickness) at one or both ends so the spoiler doesn't bolt as tightly to the body and it can't dig into your nice new paint.

Your last picture is showing a short broken section with one of the studs above the rest of the spoiler where it fits. If you properly clean this up so it's just the original plastic everywhere, you could try the sealant trick to bond it back into place. Something really strong like tiger seal perhaps. Put plenty on as it doesn't matter how much is behind the rear face occupying the hollow of the spoiler. I suggest dressing the entire painted section of the hatch on your car with overlapping cling film before refitting the broken spoiler in parts, so even if the silicone splurges out nothing bonds to your nice new paint.

You'll have to consider how to create enough positive pressure on the spoiler whilst the sealant sets. You could try taping using the rear window or hatch top as one face and running the tape over the spoiler to the lower rear face of the hatch, but it would have to be strong stuff and done very tightly so the spoiler sits close to the hatch when set so it looks original. I suppose you could also try to lean something heaving against the spoiler whilst the sealant sets, or get a friend to push the spoiler into the car in a couple of places at one end, whilst you do the same at the other end. This may get boring - I wonder how long tiger seal takes to set?

Alternatively, look for another spoiler!

Wow that’s a really comprehensive reply! That’s really helpful, although my Post Sepsis ‘Reduced Cognitive Ability’ means that I will probably need to read it several times before I take it all in!

I’m going to pop up to the Bodyshop later today to see if they’ve started. If they haven’t started, I may have time to sort the gluing off the car before I go on holiday on the tenth!

I need to order a few more bits and pieces, so I will be able to include the gasket to spread the cost of the postage.

Thank you so much for your help. I will try and remember to take photos and post them.