Undid the 2 bolts but there appears to be some square plug things either side holding it in.

Bought myself a short plate - so I assume I'll have to get these filled

 

I think you need to take the bumper off, just put mine back on or I could have said for definate

 

i've been looking into this, the two options i've heard about are

a. cut the surround down the middle, obviously no use if you want to use it again, and slide it apart.

b. take the front bumper off and unbolt the fixings from behind

hope thats some use as thats all I know about it so far, hopefully some one will come with some better solutions

 

What a pain in the arse. Stupid idiots designing it in such a manner.

 

To be fair to remove the bumper is about a 5 minute job, the force needed is a little more than I thought but it pops on and off fairly easily.

 

Do you have instructions Simon?

 

try these

http://www.ricks2k.com/info/instructions/diffuser.pdf

 

This is what the number plate plinth looks like from behind.



The square head of the bolt slides into the back and the screw is fixed on from inside the bumper. So yes it is a bumper off job as even if you manage to yank the plate off (really wouldn

 

Not on an 04 it's not!
It was on my 00 car but the 04 bumper has a ing akward set of fixings around the headlights.

I dremeled the plate holder out round the bolt, you could use some touch up paint on the bolt left behind.

I have a quote of

 

I took my bumper off to remove mine, it was a half an hour job by myself and includes putting it back on. It's not hard at all, all you need is a screwdriver and 8 and 10mm sockets. I used Ricks guide

I covered the holes with some plugs I made myself:



Looks a lot better without that plastic thing.