Hello folks,
I have 2006 Nissan Sentra, 1.8S and 2015 Subaru Forester Premium w/ EyeSight. Both the vehicles have a lot of retainer clips. I have already broken a couple of them. I found few universal retainer clip kits. There are some differences in the clips in each kit. So I wonder which kit is best for my use, if anyone has any idea.
Couple of kit links
Thanks in advance.
I doubt you’d need any other clips if you bought either of them before you junked the car for other reasons. I think I’ve gone through something like 7 on my MR2, and that’s 24 years old.
Have you taken the old clip or pin to a parts house and tried to match it in stead of buy a couple of hundred pins you will never use or even the dealer.
Typically buying one of the kits gets you a bunch of different styles used on number of different types of cars. Either would likely work fine for you.
For the DIY’er, that will empty the sections of pins used for your car (or cars) and leave the rest to collect dust or trade with your friends. Most auto parts stores have racks of these individually packaged in lots of 4 or 5 that you can search when you need one or 2.
I’ve got a few of various ones on hand from previous projects but the best is just go down to NAPA or the dealer and get the ones that match the broken ones. They aren’t cheap but you usually don’t need a lot. Otherwise it looks like kit 1 would be the most useful.
Thanks folks.
Believe me, if they are a perfect fit, I will be using at least 20 for Subaru and 5 for Sentra. Out of those 20 for Subaru, 4 are different. The cost of these Subaru pins (at the dealership, didn’t check autozone) is more than the cost of the either of the kits. Plus, I like to have the stuff handy as and when I need it.
If I don’t use it in few years, I will discard. I don’t like to be wasteful, at the same time, if I can fix those 20 or so Subaru pins, its worth it.
The problem is that the Subie might use 10 different clips and the Sentra might use five different clips.
Some years back I gutted my car’s interior, installed soundproofing, and reinstalled everything. There must be at least ten different clips that were used by the manufacturer.
For the record, the soundproofing made a huge difference, and I really enjoyed the project. But, than, I AM crazy! 
I feel your pain, I have a bumper clip, only loose corner, but gave up and said heck it is 14 years old and let it go, the rod it was supposed to connect to was broke off, rusted off or whatever.
When you buy these sets of clips or any other supply, like some have said, you use up the ones that fit your car and end up with a garage full of stuff that just clutters up your life. It’s hard to toss it, because it feels wasteful and because you can convince yourself that you will need it someday. On the other hand, there’s no room to move anymore. It’s a real problem, and one you have to solve before your kids have to do it for you.
I’m learning to buy what I need when I need it.
I’ve preferred to use the Clips and Fasteners site. You can search by brand of car and it has been generally easy to identify the specific fastener that I need rather than buying a bunch that I don’t really want.
Seems like might be a good assortment to have on hand to me. I don’t know how many will actually fit your cars though. I’ve had to replace a bunch of clips on my Chevy. Going to the parts store or ordering them can be a hassle. I’ve had to take my door panels off a few times and most of the clips will break or the ribs strip off. I just replace all of them or you’ll get door rattles. The parts store doesn’t always have the exact ones in stock. I just replaced the fender splash shield and all the clips were ruined getting them off. I can usually get the push pin types off without breaking them.
I will be coming back to pick your brains on this one for sure. Thanks to the encouragement and information by various members of this board and other car specific ones that I frequent, I just started working on the car. Will take some time to convince DW that I am saving money and not actually costing more before getting her approval to do such jobs. I really don’t want to sleep on the couch, back really hurts.
Can’t speak to which pin kit is best, I just buy the pins from the dealership when I need them. But here’s some info that might help you out. I recently did a door lock job which involved removing my Corolla’s front passenger side door panel. This was the first time I had used a set of nylon pry bars designed specifically for the purpose of removing door panels. Voila! Panel came right off with nary a complaint from the clips. Didn’t break a single clip in fact, when usually I break a bunch of those damn things prying the panels off w/ a screwdriver. Plus I often chip the door paint with the screwdriver method. The set I purchased (from Harbor Freight) was quite inexpensive.
Initiate a thread on the subject and I’ll be more than happy to help with this.
I maybe changed my mind. I didn’t see any of those “christmas tree” pins commonly used on door panels. Most of those are for fastening the plastic splash panels etc. Kinda hard to tell what’s in the kits though. Yeah might be nice to try the actual panel tools but I’ve used those braces from a set of kids bike training wheels (very handy) and a side cutter, as long as you don’t cut them in two.