I have a 2004 RX-8, and when I ordered new plates today, I found I could not get my rear plates off. The screws will turn, but nothing actually happens when they turn. I called the dealership and they said that that has happened before and they wanted $200!!! to fix it. I do not want to spend 200 bucks on something that should not be broken in the first place. Has anyone ran into this or have any advice?

Thanks

 

how about you talk to it?

lol jk, its probably a dead bolt, greatttt try to screw it and use a female on the other side of the head of the bolt and pry it out

 

If you pry the bolt out, I think you're still left with a problem. You can't reach behind to hold a nut to use with a new bolt. If the dealer was at all serious about the $200 charge, it's probably because you'd have to do something like remove the rear fascia to fix. I wonder if this is limited to the 2004 models. If this happens regularly (dealer said they had heard of it before), it sounds like a problem Mazda should correct for the customer.

 

Just pull out on the plate gently as you turn the screw, the screw will come out. You can then replace the inserts.

 

^+1

Or try to get something behind the head of the bolt and gently pry outward will unscrewing it.

 

+2

On my car the screws are srewed into a square plastic insert. At pepboys a bag of six of these inserts was around three dollars. I think that they were called "License Plate Holders" or some such.

 

I had the same problem. No way could I unscrew the rusty bolts. Final solution was to cut and/or grind the bolt heads off with a Dremel Moto Tool. Have to be careful not to mess up the licence plate, but once that is done the bolts and rusty nuts drop down somewhere behind the bumper and it is no problem to install the square plastic nuts in the slots in the bumper.

Silvershadow

 

Ditto!!

Since you are replacing the plates.....GRIND AWAY!!! A Dremel is way cheaper than $200.....and it's what they are going to do anyway!!

 

I order license frame few days ago try to replace and same problem rusted screw cant take it off and the plastic who hold the other side was damaged!! Sucks have to take off the bumper cut the screws and put new screws with nuts on the other side of the bumper. Takes me about 1.30 min to do it. It was last saturday and the problem is if I ever want to take the plate of I have to take the bumper once again to take of the nuts. I cant buy difrent type of screws like lisense or something :") couse my bumper was lie on the street already and didnt have a spere car.
Why mazda put those kind of screws ???? ehhhhhhhhhh

 

I had to cut mine off with a dremel when I got my personalized plates. I replaced the plastic inserts and bought stainless steel screws so I wouldn't have the problem again. The screws that came with the inserts were just plated and will rust in a year or two.

 

You guys think he can drill it out?

 

For me, I was switching to an out-of-state plate so I didn't need the plate anymore. I cut the plate off with some strong scissors and then I just pushed the screws inward and then they drop down behind the bottom bumper. Then use plastic inserts.

 

nice tip JaChTsai.

And i swear to god I'll punch a kitten if someone comes in here with "holy dead thread revival". We can't ask people to search when they have a question and then turn around and dump on them for posting in old threads.

 

I had a similar problem.

The shitty plastic bolt they were using to hold the plate in place sheered off. when I tried to drill the bolt out and remove it with one of those bolt remover things, the metal nut that was welded in place tore off.

what are these pastic nuts you guys seem to be talking of, and how to I attach them? do they just glue in place where the socket used to be?

 

Pull off the bumper

 

Holy dead thread revival batman. :D

 

i've looked a bit at the rear bumper removal DIY...
surely there must be a better way than this... lol.

some people on this thread are talking about some kind of plastic nuts / plastic inserts / "license plate holders" that they used instead of the metal nuts (which look to be welded?) in place.
Any idea about how that works? It didn't sound like they had to remove the bumper, but they might have just not mentioned it...

sadface

 

The plastic insert is a square block that snaps into a square hole in the bumper cover. The steell bolt is just a bolt. The thing with just dremeling the top off is that it will not permit you to easily removed the white plastic block that it is screwed into. If you drill it out, then you cen get rid of the white plastic block, get a new one and a new bolt, definitely go stainless, and you won't be doing this again. When I sold my RX8, about three or four years after I replaced the bolts, they just unscrewed nice and easily.

 

i used a bolt remover on the plastic bolt.
unfortunatly it was so stuck that the peice of metal that the nut was attached to... tore right off when i tried to twist out the bolt.

will the plastic inserts still snap into place? or do they require that peice of metal that the nut was attached to? Are they specific for the RX-8 or are they one-size-fits-all and at any auto shop?

 

I bought the replacements at Pepboys. They are a standard replacement part for lots of cars. You need to get those white plastic inserts out without damaging the cover though, then the new ones pop right in and don't tighten up until you screw the bolt into it.

 

Uh-oh....

Ken

 

does it looks like this?



and placed like this?

 

 

For anyone who needs advice on this, I was able to drill through the screw head until it broke off, then push the piece holding the rest of the screw through the square hole on the bumper. Bought a set of screws and screw holders for around $4 at Advance and that did the trick.

 

I'm all thumbs when it comes to bolts, nuts, screws. Clueless. That said, I have a drill, a set of drill bits, a "stripped screw" remover, and I can follow directions. (I installed the aftermarket strakes, the OEM interior floor lights, and the OEM stainless steel door sill covers, all perfectly. I even snaked wires through my wall for my rear 5.1 speakers!)

So… how exactly, do you "drill it out"? I honestly don't know what that means.

Thanks!