Front license plate removal; help!

[Zray]

I've been wondering lately what my MSP would look like without the license plate on the front, but they are required by law here in Texas; I thought about it though, and started checking to see if all cars had plates on the front here in Austin. Suprisingly I found about 1 out of 5 cars have no front plate (could be all the college students, maybe), so I decided to give it a try.

Well the plate came off easy enough, as did the first bolt on the right side of the bracket, but the one on the left? It spins and friggin spins, but won't budge a damn inch. I tried using a screwdriver and a plastic shim (behind the screw driver to protect the bumper) and pry on it while trying to unscrew the bolt, and it still spins but won't friggin budge :mad:

Is there a nut on these bolts? The first one I pulled out looked self-threading (witha sharp-pointed tip), so I just assumed the second was also. The only thing I can think of is if there is a nut the bolt is locked to on the other side. I tried getting my hand up to there from under the bumper, and I found some sort of foam/rubber barrier just below the bolt blocking access from behind. Is my only option at this point removing the whole bumper so I can get at it from behind? Or is there a way of removing the upper grill to gain access?
What to do... this was supposed to be easy (argh)

 

[Dreeza]

just take a sledghammer to it


lol, sorry dude, thats why i love MI...not front license plates


wish i could offer some help

 

[uclap5]

i think another member had this problem. try a search for more info

And the solution aient pretty if i remember correctly (double check by searching for that threa). you have to take off the bumper because i believe there is a nut in there and it has worked itself loose, so turning it turns the nut as well.

 

[Zray]

Thanks, I'll try the search again - musta been a while ago 'cause I went through at least 5 pages of search results...

 

[brabbani]

i took my license plate off my p5 like 2 months ago when i bought it and i live in texas....no cops have stopped me or said anything.

 

[Zray]

well I justed looked at again in the daylight, and there's no friggin' way I'm getting it off without taking off the front. I guess that will be next weekend's project :/

 

[L8R]

i had the same exact problem. youre going to have to remove the front bumper. hard to explane, but once u do, ull see the problem. if it keeps spinning, the pins that hold the nut in place probably broke, thus when u turn the screw over and over again, it doesnt help. but yah, remove your front, thats the only way peace -chris

 

[mspeedpro]

whats easiest way to remove the sticker underneeth the license plate??

 

[Dynotrick]

Is there a nut on these bolts? The first one I pulled out looked self-threading (witha sharp-pointed tip), so I just assumed the second was also. The only thing I can think of is if there is a nut the bolt is locked to on the other side.

If the bolt going into the bumper is the sharp gold one and the ones holding on the plate were the black flat finetreaded ones then the tech who PDIed your car put the plate bracket together wrong. The fine-thread black bolts are supposed to go into the bumper and they would remove easily. The sharp gold bolts don't fit into that nut in the bumper, they just get stuck and end up stripping away the plastic that holds the nut in place. You'll have to take the bumper off most likely to fix it now.