How To Remove Hood Insulation Clips? When taking out your hood insulation, you must remove the clips first. These clips are designed to firmly hold the insulator in place so that it doesn’t fall on the engine.
If you have never dealt with hood clips before, you can spend hours trying to remove them. For those who aren’t patient, you may end up snapping the hood insulation clips. Obviously, that shouldn’t be your goal because you will need these clips to install new hood insulation.
Removing hood insulation clips is easy. You will need two things; needle-nose pliers and a flat head screwdriver. When removing these clips, you should insert the flat head screwdriver on one side and gently lift it.
In the space created, you will squeeze in the needle-nose pliers, grab the inside of the clip and press it gently. The clip should pop out without any complications.
If you examine the other end of the hood insulation clip, you will see that it’s elastic. When pressed, it compresses and comes off easily.
How To Remove Hood Insulation Clips?
[toc]
Why Do These Clips Break So Easily?
Most people feel frustrated when removing hood insulation clips. These clips often end up flying across the room and breaking into pieces. Hood insulation clips are made of plastic.
Many car owners don’t know the mechanism of how these clips work. If you pry them using only a screwdriver, the underside of the clip will resist, resulting in breakage.
Snapping them isn’t the answer if you want to reuse the hood insulation clips. You will have to follow the right approach, which we have listed above. Using a lot of effort and curse words won’t do much for hood insulation clips.
Is Replacing Hood Insulation Clips Better?
A set of hood insulation clips cost around $7. This price may seem too low that you wouldn’t mind breaking all the ones in your hood. However, when you factor in the time, you will have to wait for these clips to arrive.
Assuming you are ordering them online. Or the distance you have to travel to buy new clips. A replacement isn’t worth it.
As long as the clips are in great condition, there is absolutely no reason you should snap them into pieces during the removal of the hood insulation. If you never knew how to remove these clips, you can use this guide for inspiration.
Remember that needle-nose pliers are the secret ingredient.
Also, when compressing the clips, be gentle. Too much effort can also lead to an undesired result.
Why Do I have to Remove Hood Clips?
If you want to remove the insulation, you must first remove the clips. That’s mandatory. Hood insulations wear out after a while. Therefore, as the car owner, you may consider replacing the hood insulation.
After buying the new hood insulation, you will need to remove the old one. You can dive straight into pulling out the old insulation. But that’s not recommended.
In the process, you will break most clips. You may also damage the insulation. If you want to clean the insulation and not replace it, you must be very careful when handling it.
Can I Use a Door Panel Tool to Remove Hood Insulation Clips?
Are you a DIY enthusiast? Does a door panel tool seem ideal for removing hood insulation clips? Well, we have got bad news for you. Door panel tools aren’t the ideal tool for such a task.
This tool is great at prying out clips. But it won’t work past the unclipping mechanism. Do you remember when we said that you have to compress the underside of the clip so that it can pop out?
The clip will remain firmly grounded in the hole when you skip this step. No matter how much force you use with your door panel tool, it won’t come off in one piece.
Suppose you settle on a door panel tool. Prepare yourself to break all the hood insulation clips under your trunk.
Is It a Good Idea to Buy Hood Insulation Clips Before Starting this Project?
Yes. That would be a brilliant idea. The hood insulation clips on your car have been there since manufacture. This is unless you had removed them at one point. During the removal of these clips, you may find some broken ones.
Or you may break them during removal. You can never be too sure. Buying new clips before starting such a project is a great idea.
This will ensure you have a backup set of clips.
Plus, you won’t have to be so careful. If you have a quick temper, it’s important to buy new clips before beginning this project.
These tiny objects can be quite annoying, and it’s easy for you to get frustrated before going on a rampage and breaking all the clips.
Where Can I Buy Hood Insulation Clips?
NAPA is a great place for you to get hood insulation clips. You can also get them from Amazon or any auto parts store. Finding hood insulation clips shouldn’t be a challenge because they are widely available.
If you are worried about where to get hood insulation clips, please don’t. There are many places you can get these clips both online and offline.
Are Hood Insulation Clips Reusable?
This depends on the current condition of the clips. Hood insulation clips can be reused as long as they are in good working condition. How you remove them determines whether you can reuse the old clips or not.
If you use the wrong tools and methods, your clips will no longer be reusable. But, if you use the needle-nose pliers, you will have a higher chance of reusing most of the clips.
Can I Remove Hood Insulation Clips with a Fork?
Yes, you can. But you will have to be very careful and patient. By now, you should have understood how the mechanism of these clips works.
For these clips to come off, they must be compressed. A fork can’t compress the underside of the clips. You will be counting on the fork’s ability to retain the spacing in between and hope that it will compress the underside.
A fork can be a great tool for such a task, but it will require a lot of precision.
You will be better off using needle-nose pliers. This tool will get the work done much faster, and you are assured of removing all the clips in one go. It’s much better than the uncertainty you get from using forks.
What are the Odds of Breaking All Your Hood Insulator Clips?
The odds of breaking all your hood insulator clips are lower when you use the wrong tools such as door panel tools and forks.
However, you can be assured of successfully removing at least all hood insulator clips when you use needle-nose pliers.
This is one of the projects that require a lot of carefulness and patience. But, it’s not something you should be extremely worried about since hood insulator clips are reusable and aren’t very costly.
What about a Claw Hammer?
You will be surprised by the ideas you will get when you reach a dead end.
Removing hood insulation clips can be frustrating.
That’s something we can all agree on. As you devise ways to remove these clips, you may think about using a claw hammer.
By looking at the shape of a claw hammer, it may seem like a great choice. But it doesn’t offer a 100% guarantee that you will safely remove the clips.
Claw hammers are just like bigger forks. They will get beneath the round or square top but won’t compress the clips. Therefore, you may end up snapping the clips.
There are also concerns that the claw hammer can damage the surface of the underhood. If you must use a claw hammer, put a sheet of wood beneath. What you can be assured of is that you will break some clips.
Does the Weather Affect Removal of Hood Insulation Clips?
If you do more research about hood insulation removal, you will find comments saying that it’s better to remove these clips during summer than winter. The argument here is that plastic is more pliable when it’s hot.
There is some truth to this statement. In summer, plastic is more flexible. Going back to how these clips work, when the plastic is more flexible, it will be easier for you to remove them in one piece.
But during winter, the low temperatures make it hard for you to compress the plastic. You may use a lot of force which results in the breakage of the plastic.
So, does that mean you should wait to remove hood insulation clips in summer? Absolutely not! Replacing the hood insulation clips on your car will only cost a few dollars.
Therefore, you don’t have to wait for so long. Use the method recommended above to remove most of the clips correctly.
Visit an auto store and get replacement clips that you can use after. It’s important to firmly hold the hood insulator with clips.