How do you remove the rear bumper/fender from a VW Golf Mk4?

This afternoon I attempted to fit a fixed towbar to my Golf Mk4. I removed the rear light clusters and all visible screws below and above the bumper and also in the wheel arches. However, despite further tugging I was still unable to remove the bumper. Does the inside panel have to be removed as well? I saw no screws for this. I don't want to cause any damage to the nasty plastic fittings, there must be a way of doing this properly. I did see some beige square pegs below the light clusters deep inside, are these involved? Many thanks.How do you remove the rear bumper/fender from a VW Golf Mk4?With much research, I have compiled a DIY for removing the rear bumper on Golf/GTIs and Jettas. Like the front bumper, they are similar but still different. Both involve removal of the tail light assemblies, as there are bolts under the tail lights. There are also bolts under the bumper and inside the wheel wells.



Tools I recommend:

- socket wrench with 3"(inch) and 1'(foot) extension. I used a 1/2" drive.

- 8mm socket

- 10mm socket

- T25 and T20 TORX sockets

- #2 Philips screwdriver

- small screwdriver

- small punch



First, locate the 8mm bolts holding your tail light assemblies. For ease of access on my GTI, I removed the amplifier/CD-changer rack. On Golfs/GTIs, the driver's side assembly has one bolt which is really buried behind the there. If you have the factory Monsoon amp, you can remove it by unscrewing the 2 Philips screws, then sliding the amp away from the rack.



A couple of 10mm bolts and one T20 Torx screw hold the two piece rack in. You will see 2 of the 8mm bolts, and the third one is inside a rectangular hole. If you drop this bolt, don't worry, as if you pull up the carpet a bit, you'll find the bolt there.



On the passenger side, the third bolt can be located by looking for a slight cut out in the sheet metal. You can see that cut out in the first picture, in the lower left corner(removed temporarily).



The driver's side should come out after you remove the bolts, but the passenger side assembly on Golfs/GTIs has a metal pin that wedges into a rubber grommet right at the bottom corner of the assembly. Slowly work the pin out by twisting and pulling gently towards the side of the car.



Pictures have been temporarily removed, sorry!



After you remove the taillights, you'll see there is 1 T25 Torx bolt and a plastic rivet with a pin in the middle(at least on the Golf/GTI). Use the small screwdriver to poke the plastic pin through the rivet, but make sure you know where it went if you plan to reuse the rivets. (I personally mangled it because I didn't realize I could poke it through.) After poking the pin through, you can remove the fastener by wedging the small screwdriver between the bumper skin and the rivet. It will pop out. I didn't put the rivets back on, as I figured there were enough bolts holding the skin on.



Remove the 6 T20 screws in the wheel wells, 3 on each side.



Unbolt the 2 (Golf/GTI) or 3 (Jetta) T25 bolts under the valence, and then the 2 T25 bolts where the tail lights were.



If you plan to remove the skin from the car, there is a plug near the driver's side tail light for the rear license plate on Golf/GTIs. If you are just adjustiing the bumper skin, you don't need to unplug it.



After removing the bolts and rivets, the bumper skin will slide off rearward.



Below WERE images from the manual. The first one is the Jetta and Golf rear bumpers, the second one is a more detailed scan of the Jetta rear bumper, but as mentioned before, is very similar to the Golf/GTI rear bumper.



i found this at the link below