My wife has just acquired a 2017 Prius 4. It has the air pump and FixAFlat stuff.stored in a foam panel. There appears to be be some available space for storage under the foam cover. But the cover is installed with fasteners that resist removal. How do you remove them and the cover without destroying it?
in mine there is a left half and a right half foam cover. one half overlaps the other, can't remember which one. also each half only has two fasteners the first is a black rectangular like handle nearer towards the seat back. the second is a white circular plastic coin size thing nearer the wheel well with a philips cross head that you need to unscrew first. after which you can go back to the rectangular one which just pops off if you pull straight up. that's it and you're done!
I tried to unscrew the white fasteners but they just spin and don't back out like a screw would. That's when I thought that maybe they were some other kind of fasteners. But, maybe tToyota just stripped them during manufacture. I just don't know and am afraid of damaging something. Thanks for your information. Ray
You might want to ask questions in this thread. I saw pictures but no answer directly to your question. Undeleting the spare tire from a 4 | PriusChat
Others have removed them intact. I stripped them when pulling out by brute force. As a matter of principle and pride I wish I had not done that, but as a practical matter those little white fasteners will never be missed. FWIW, I removed just the left most insert and filled the void with a bunch of stuff -- compressor, reflective road triangles, umbrellas, folding shovel, etc.
I just tugged the white fasteners off mine when I changed from the gunk to space saver spare wheel foams. It takes some effort, but I did manage to re-use them on my new spare wheel foam bits, so although they looked a little worse for wear when I pulled them off they still hold down. I couldn't re-use the front ones as they are not deep enough for the new foams, which are thicker. IMO the fasteners are not needed anyway the foam isn't going anywhere when it's in, it's held in place by the rear seat and the trunk floor panel.
i actually didn't really get a chance to try unscrewing the phillips head white fasteners as i had accidentally popped the off already when i realized they were meant to be unscrewed. but nothing doing. when putting back the panel i just pop back the rectangular ones and leave the white ones as is. everything seems to go back to original place just fine and nothing loose or rattling.
Those white fasteners do unscrew, but it takes patience. Lots of turns. Large Phillips head didn't work worth a hoot and the large flathead didn't want to stay in the slot for more than a few turns at a time. Thankfully, they just push back into place. I just finished installing cargo lights in my wife's 2017 trim 2 to match the ones in my Prime.
It does help to pull while unscrewing, which increases bonus points for degree of difficulty. Otherwise, pressing on the screwdriver pushes the fastener back down. I should have mentioned that. Thanks, Mendel.
This is the style holding down the rear foam on my 2019. No amount of mere turning will make it screw up and out. It's more of a release, then a pull-up. Worse comes to worse, these probably don't cost an arm and a leg to replace if you break them.
I removed that rear foam to put in a full sized spare - one of these days I'll take a picture of how I upfitted the rear area.
Interesting. Mine did unscrew, but as Mendel reminded me, I did have to lift at the same time. And it takes lots and lots of turns. I thought about just pulling but was concerned that I might break out the bottom of the hole it's in. Is that the entire fastener in your picture. The 2017 I had apart looked like a two-piece affair. The white part you show and a yellow part. I should have snapped a picture.
That is the entire fastener that came up and out. There may be a yellow receiver still down in the hole. I don't know.
