Plastic push clips

[D60]

Some have 3 or 4 different clips on just one part. Fender liners and rocker flares especially.

The inner fender on GMT900s drives me NUTS for this. They know you have to pull it to get to the fuel filter on the Dmax.

There's FOUR different styles and sizes of bolts and clips. They absolutely could have least done all plastic clips the same and all bolt heads the same size, but they simply chose not to.

Yeah, I installed an aftermarket door but that's not the point at all. Key word being aftermarket

 

[bdcardinal]

The inner fender on GMT900s drives me NUTS for this. They know you have to pull it to get to the fuel filter on the Dmax.

There's FOUR different styles and sizes of bolts and clips. They absolutely could have least done all plastic clips the same and all bolt heads the same size, but they simply chose not to.

Yeah, I installed an aftermarket door but that's not the point at all. Key word being aftermarket

We broke in a non OSHA approved installed lift in my friends new average middle class small detached garage on a mutual friend's 2020 Ranger. I had always heard that oil filter location was bad... but wow.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Yes, many shop do stock these clips and this happens all the time with many customers who probably never notice. And even shops who are held in high regard by their customer base can be thrifty and lax. And it could be the Tech themselves who were too lazy to look for new clips.

YouTubes "Rain Man Rays Repairs" said that it is the few techs who give the other 300,000 of us a bad reputation. He was speaking more about the shyster, scammers in the business than the tech who missed a few fasteners. But you get the idea.
You did the right thing be buying some for yourself. I keep some around too because I break them often especially in the cold.

I'm OCD about OE fasteners, so they are one of the easiest telltale signs that someone else, probably lazy or incompetent, has worked on a car.

Recently helped someone replace some burned-out bulbs in their car, and found that the mofos who had done so before used self-tapping, instead of the proper machine thread screws on one of the light fixtures. Dealer-serviced all its life, so they have no excuses for not knowing better.

 

[willbur]

Never mind there maybe be 3 or 4 styles of clips per vehicle.

must be a german car

 

[D60]

I'm OCD about OE fasteners, so they are one of the easiest telltale signs that someone else, probably lazy or incompetent, has worked on a car.

Recently helped someone replace some burned-out bulbs in their car, and found that the mofos who had done so before used self-tapping, instead of the proper machine thread screws on one of the light fixtures. Dealer-serviced all its life, so they have no excuses for not knowing better.

I agree on threads! I hate it when someone destroys threads to use something universal like sheetmetal screws.

I just chased all five mounting holes for a Tundra front skid last night. M8x1.25 and now they all work beautifully. BUT since 3 of the 5 fasteners were missing, I'll have to use non-OEM M8 bolts. Likely a 13mm head rather than the 12mm Toyota loves.

Too bad, it'll have to work. I'm not charging extra for this and I've already gone miles beyond what most techs would do. I'll also label the skid in silver Sharpie with the head size of each bolt....although that assumes a LOF monkey can read.

 

[eljefino]

Another shameless zip tie user here. Sometimes those plastics get ripped off on snowbanks or parking curbs. They serve a purpose and I try my darndest to keep what's left in a place close to its design location, and with as few rattles as there can be.

How often do you see splash shields violently flapping on the highway? Wonder what that sounds like in the car.

 

[John105]

My take is the customer will never be poking around under the hood and I'm not going to pay for them out of my pocket I'm flat rate.

With that being said, I dropped a torx bit down into the engine bay on my wife's because my tool is cheap and it was magnetic. While looking for it with a 3000 lumens flashlight, I found an extra air cleaner screw. This means a dealer dropped it and they did replace it as I was not missing any. GM screws tend to be $4 each, more than a plastic fastener. They coulda simply left that out too.

 

[D60]

Another shameless zip tie user here. Sometimes those plastics get ripped off on snowbanks or parking curbs. They serve a purpose and I try my darndest to keep what's left in a place close to its design location, and with as few rattles as there can be.

How often do you see splash shields violently flapping on the highway? Wonder what that sounds like in the car.

Or the ones that are dangling ~1" above the road surface. How do you not hear that on every bump? And how do you not see it when walking toward your car from a distance? Ok I know the answer to the second one: most people are mechanically oblivious

 

[Hall]

Another shameless zip tie user here. Sometimes those plastics get ripped off on snowbanks or parking curbs. They serve a purpose and I try my darndest to keep what's left in a place close to its design location, and with as few rattles as there can be.

My G35 and our daughter's Civic underbody shields are held on by a combination of the proper fasteners and zip-ties. Short of replacing, in some cases, multiple pieces of unobtainium plastic shields, I have little choice.

 

[troymcclure]

My take is the customer will never be poking around under the hood and I'm not going to pay for them out of my pocket I'm flat rate.

With that being said, I dropped a torx bit down into the engine bay on my wife's because my tool is cheap and it was magnetic. While looking for it with a 3000 lumens flashlight, I found an extra air cleaner screw. This means a dealer dropped it and they did replace it as I was not missing any. GM screws tend to be $4 each, more than a plastic fastener. They coulda simply left that out too.

Airbox fasteners…there is a special place in hell for the ones that fall off. I have a Nissan which uses the metal bands that stretch from the filter holder to the airbox. They are looped onto the filter holder just enough to make you think they are secure and then they fall straight out once you pull the filter holder out. I can’t even imagine how many Nissans are running around out there on unfiltered air.

 

[Gus_Mahn]

I rebuilt 4 totaled first generation Cruzes for family. GM is very proud of their clips at about $5 ea. I started buying similar clips on eBay. Some came shipped from China. I could get 100 delivered for the price of two or three from GM. Quality isn't as good, because I occasionally find a broken one, but I've got plenty of spares.

 

[D60]

Airbox fasteners…there is a special place in hell for the ones that fall off. I have a Nissan which uses the metal bands that stretch from the filter holder to the airbox. They are looped onto the filter holder just enough to make you think they are secure and then they fall straight out once you pull the filter holder out. I can’t even imagine how many Nissans are running around out there on unfiltered air.

....and I've had a '14 Rogue TWICE IN 2 WEEKS barely run due to a bug fried on the MAF. Although to be fair the air filter box seemed to be sealed up fine.

Those dropped fasteners are partying with 10mm sockets somewhere in the ether

 

[D60]

I rebuilt 4 totaled first generation Cruzes for family. GM is very proud of their clips at about $5 ea. I started buying similar clips on eBay. Some came shipped from China. I could get 100 delivered for the price of two or three from GM. Quality isn't as good, because I occasionally find a broken one, but I've got plenty of spares.

This is my reasoning, too. Import copies are basically single use because they just break if you try to remove them....BUT the thing is OEM is 50/50 on being single use anyway because they also break. I'd rather have 100 single-use than expensive OEM that may or may not hold up for a couple times.

 

[paulo57509]

Most of our cars are old and interior clips and such are hard to source. Most of the hardware for the interior panels that break or go missing are those plastic screw nuts (grommets?) that snap onto holes in the door frame. They're typically broken or stripped beyond recognition.

I've used drywall anchors in place of those unobtainium plastic nuts.