bluez16

Today went to install my new plate & discovered the upper right screw hole has a broken screw inside of it..........Whatever Acura did there, putting receiver nuts that would RUST versus a metal which wouldn't, is beyond me! The original owner, from up around the Cleveland, OH area must've installed at one time, a plate bolt which literally rusted in place, inside the rusty nut Acura had welded to the trunk lid? Oh well, will try some WD-40 to soak the broken bolt(no head on it either), has about 1/8" protruding out of the rusty nut first...... Then hoping i can get hold of it and work it out. If not, then comes the center punch and drill.

Anyone here know what tpi (thread per inch) it is? Will probably need to run a tap in the nut afterwards. The left side also is showing a rusty receptor nut, but it has no broken bolt inside of it. So, delegated to only using the bottom holes to attach my license plate......I know, small problem...... but just some detail an engineer failed to see beyond the factory floor......

allin

Hey, i replaced my bolts on the license a few weeks ago and noticed the rusty nuts welded to the trunk lid too. It's terribly designed.

But what i found was that the bolts that the Acura dealer used was some type of a plastic screw, not a metal bolt. On mine, they broke while I was trying to remove them. Then, I couldn't remove them because they would just shear when I put the vise grips to them. I ended up drilling them out with a drill bit, using a slightly smaller diameter, then pulled the rest of the plastic out with needle nose pliers. Drilling them out was a breeze since they were plastic. I replaced with stainless, but don't remember the size. I can tell you that they are exactly the same size as the bolts on the lower retaining clips.

Hope that helps.