That's exactly where mine failed. Oh FYI I now remember exactly how I got mine off: I cut the old boot in half and easily reached my hand through the space to get to the bottom screw.

Bummer for me was that the replacement boot was crap: the copy cat looked exactly the same but the accordion bumps were only decoration on the outside so they didn't actually function so to have a working car I had to superglue my old boot back together. FYI only thing superglue sticks to better than rubber is skin so it's a perfect instant fix for split rubber on that accordion tube.

I bought a knock off because was the only Amazon prime option. Amazon also had the proper one which I exchanged the crap one for just took a few days to get and my boot that in addition to having about 4 "gills" in the small tube I actually cut in three pieces to remove before I realized the replacement was worthless.

Amazingly the old one glued back together perfectly and worked great for a week until I got the new one.

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)