Yesterday, I purchased a hood deflector for my 2004 Subaru. I'm not much of a "car guy," but since the instructions show that only a screwdriver was needed, I thought I'd install it myself.

 

The installation instructions are here. (PDF Document)

 

The problem I'm having is on step 6. I put in the plastic screwplugs on step 5, but when trying to screw in the self tapping screws, the screwplugs start to rotate instead of staying in place and letting the self tapping screws, well, tap! I can see that the back side of the screwplug will have to expand when the screw gets farther in and it will hold well at that point, but I can't get the screw in far enough for that to happen.

 

There's not any room for me to insert a crescent wrench or something else to stop the screwplugs from rotating.

 

Any ideas?

No ideas at all???

Give us a minute!

 

I think you should try to pull the plastic plugs out and hold them in a pair of pliers as you tap a thread by driving the screws in. That way, when you screw them into the hood it won't be the first time the screw is going in and they will probably go in.

Welcome to the board!

We need more Utah people here

I'd thread the screws in as far as they can go then back them out far enough to still fit in the drilled holes.

 

If this does not work try adding a bit of double sided foam mounting tape to the bottom side of the plastic nut. Then they will stay in place long enough to finish twisting the screws into it.

 

Good Luck,

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer

01 Forester

Give us a minute!

 

I think you should try to pull the plastic plugs out and hold them in a pair of pliers as you tap a thread by driving the screws in. That way, when you screw them into the hood it won't be the first time the screw is going in and they will probably go in.

Sorry... I was just bumping the topic.

 

I tried doing that, but the darned things still spin in place. :-\

Welcome to the board!

We need more Utah people here

I'd thread the screws in as far as they can go then back them out far enough to still fit in the drilled holes.

 

If this does not work try adding a bit of double sided foam mounting tape to the bottom side of the plastic nut. Then they will stay in place long enough to finish twisting the screws into it.

 

Good Luck,

Glenn

82 SubaruHummer

01 Forester

I'll try threading the screws in and then backing them out. Hopefully that will work.

 

I'm on stage the next few nights (I'm playing "Mordcha" in a local theatre's production of "Fiddler on the Roof"), but hopefully I'll have it mounted by the weekend.

 

Thanks for the ideas!

:cool:

 

So I finally got this thing installed last weekend. It turns out that the plastic nut, when rotated in the right direction, had a bump that fit into a slot on the deflector, so if I squeezed it juuuuuuuuuuust right, it stayed in place and allowed me to tighten it up.

 

Thanks for the ideas!