On the right side of the engine bay where the wiring harness runs along the wheel well, the harness is attached at 4 points with black plastic standoffs that go thru the wheel well sheetmetal and are held in place with some kind of barbs on the wheel side. The front 2 attachments are circular where the harness runs thru the circle. The rear 2 are flat where the harness is just attached to them with a couple wraps of electricians tape.

I am in the process of trying to remove rustproofing tar overspray (from a long ago rustproofing job) from the right side of the engine bay. I would like to pop out those 4 black plastic gizmos temporarily while I clean things up.

I can't seem to pop them out. From the wheel side, I have tried pinching them with a pliers and then pushing but no luck. Don't want to push too hard so I don't jam the pliers into the wheel well sheetmetal.

Any tricks to this?

They look like they should just pop thru and be reusable.

 

Use needle-nose pliers and come at them from the side, squeezing the long axis; you want to pinch the part closest to the sheetmetal. Once you get one out and look at it, it'll be obvious how it works.

 

Great tip. Grabbed my needle-nose pliers with the 45 deg. bend in the jaws and finessed them right out like that.

 

I ripped mine out. Sure they all broke, but you can get them at any auto parts store for $2

 

Did not know that. Good to know.