Rusty No More: How to upgrade your license plate screws.

[Angus]

Friends, as hard as we work to keep our vehicles shine and clean, often our OEM license plate screws go overlooked and rust into painful little eye sores. I’m certainly guilty of letting this happen.

But enough is enough – today I decided to replace the rusting little menaces on my wife’s 2012 Subaru Impreza while at the same time adding a nice little anti-theft layer.

The oxidized culprits:





Corroded offenders removed:


License plate and mounting area cleaned:


New Stainless Steel Security Screws from Lowes (~$5):


I went with slightly longer screws then the OEM ones because I used spacer to keep the new license plate frame from touching the paint.

What makes these screws secure is without this hollow point star drive bit they can’t be removed:

(~$2.50, also from Lowes)

See the little hole in the middle:


Since I was going to trouble, simply replacing the screws wasn’t an option. The cheap-o license plate frame was starting to rust and needed to go as well:


With a nice new stainless steel frame in hand, a quick layer of BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Metal Acrylic Sealant is added, and the screws are secured & guaranteed not to rust out anytime soon:


Done!


Hope this little DIY helps free you from Rusty License Plate Syndrome too.

[Marc Hufnagel]

Wish my Infiniti had the lower set of screw inserts. It only has the upper ones. If I could make a square hole for the oem plastic inserts I`d do it.

What do you use for spacers?

[MooreImpressive]

lots of really cool ones on eBay for just a few dollars. I buy the bullet ones. pretty cool looking, and chrome. be sure to change the rusty ones before they get to the point where they can break off while trying to remove. <<---tip of the day right there

[Marc Hufnagel]

Nissan?

[Stokdgs]

Angus -
Great upgrade and look !
Torx head screws are the new fasteners on a lot of automotive applications for a few years now..love them.. they are not going to come off unless you have the T25 driver handy...
FYI for everyone else - these little caps can be had in gray, black, or chrome last i looked, at most auto parts places..
Griot`s sells really nice expensive ones as well..
Dan F

[MooreImpressive]

as a person who buys and sells a lot of wholesale cars, often at the dealer auction, license plate screws can drive you crazy. it used to be there were only a couple different sizes of bolts needed. most cars used plastic holes, so you could pretty much screw anything in there. only a couple Euro cars used the actual threaded ones, and they were all the same size. now, every manufacturer outside the US uses the threaded kind, and they are all different sizes. it makes it nearly impossible to have the screws needed to put on your dealer plates when you buy something at the auction. why cant companies come together and agree on 1 or 2 set sizes? I cant carry around 10 pairs of screws all the time, and I just don`t like the back window thing, especially when its tinted.

EDIT: just noticed the plate number on OP`s car. is this real life?

[SYMAWD]

as a person who buys and sells a lot of wholesale cars, often at the dealer auction, license plate screws can drive you crazy. it used to be there were only a couple different sizes of bolts needed. most cars used plastic holes, so you could pretty much screw anything in there. only a couple Euro cars used the actual threaded ones, and they were all the same size. now, every manufacturer outside the US uses the threaded kind, and they are all different sizes. it makes it nearly impossible to have the screws needed to put on your dealer plates when you buy something at the auction. why cant companies come together and agree on 1 or 2 set sizes? I cant carry around 10 pairs of screws all the time, and I just don`t like the back window thing, especially when its tinted.

EDIT: just noticed the plate number on OP`s car. is this real life?

Buy a plate bag and done.

[Angus]

Wish my Infiniti had the lower set of screw inserts. It only has the upper ones. If I could make a square hole for the oem plastic inserts I`d do it.

What do you use for spacers?

The spacers came with the new licence plate frame, but I`m sure you could use small rubber washers layer 2-3 deep to acheive similar results.

lots of really cool ones on eBay for just a few dollars. I buy the bullet ones. pretty cool looking, and chrome. be sure to change the rusty ones before they get to the point where they can break off while trying to remove. <<---tip of the day right there

You got that right! Broken/ jammed licence plate screws are the worst.

Nissan?

Subaru.

Angus -
Great upgrade and look !
Torx head screws are the new fasteners on a lot of automotive applications for a few years now..love them.. they are not going to come off unless you have the T25 driver handy...
FYI for everyone else - these little caps can be had in gray, black, or chrome last i looked, at most auto parts places..
Griot`s sells really nice expensive ones as well..
Dan F

Thanks, Dan! I agree - I love torx screw as well

as a person who buys and sells a lot of wholesale cars, often at the dealer auction, license plate screws can drive you crazy. it used to be there were only a couple different sizes of bolts needed. most cars used plastic holes, so you could pretty much screw anything in there. only a couple Euro cars used the actual threaded ones, and they were all the same size. now, every manufacturer outside the US uses the threaded kind, and they are all different sizes. it makes it nearly impossible to have the screws needed to put on your dealer plates when you buy something at the auction. why cant companies come together and agree on 1 or 2 set sizes? I cant carry around 10 pairs of screws all the time, and I just don`t like the back window thing, especially when its tinted.

EDIT: just noticed the plate number on OP`s car. is this real life?

Oh jeeze, that`s gotta be a headache to deal with so many different screws! And to answer your question; no the plate # isn`t real life

[Billy Jack]

as a person who buys and sells a lot of wholesale cars, often at the dealer auction, license plate screws can drive you crazy.

I agree wholeheartedly. As a salesman or sales manager at GM dealers all my adult life, the past ten years or so have been the worst. Back in the 70`s thru 90`s, a regular and phillips drivers were all you needed except for the occasional commercial truck body with 7/16 hex bolts. I`ve now had to keep torx bits in my desk, as well as metric sockets to handle the 8, 10 and 13mm hex heads, allen head bits and recently torx security bits to handle screws like the op`s. And, of course, the weird screws always show up on nights or weekends when the technicians are gone and their toolboxes are locked.
Please Angus, when you decide to trade the thing, either swap back the screws or take your matching bit to the dealer to make life a bit easier on the guy changing the plate. All these years I`ve only had one person supply an appropriate bit. The rest suffered the wrath of my vise-grips.

Bill

[Angus]

I agree wholeheartedly. As a salesman or sales manager at GM dealers all my adult life, the past ten years or so have been the worst. Back in the 70`s thru 90`s, a regular and phillips drivers were all you needed except for the occasional commercial truck body with 7/16 hex bolts. I`ve now had to keep torx bits in my desk, as well as metric sockets to handle the 8, 10 and 13mm hex heads, allen head bits and recently torx security bits to handle screws like the op`s. And, of course, the weird screws always show up on nights or weekends when the technicians are gone and their toolboxes are locked.
Please Angus, when you decide to trade the thing, either swap back the screws or take your matching bit to the dealer to make life a bit easier on the guy changing the plate. All these years I`ve only had one person supply an appropriate bit. The rest suffered the wrath of my vise-grips.

Bill

No worries Bill! The star bit is sitting in the glove box. I`d lose it too easly otherwise.

[SYMAWD]

I agree wholeheartedly. As a salesman or sales manager at GM dealers all my adult life, the past ten years or so have been the worst. Back in the 70`s thru 90`s, a regular and phillips drivers were all you needed except for the occasional commercial truck body with 7/16 hex bolts. I`ve now had to keep torx bits in my desk, as well as metric sockets to handle the 8, 10 and 13mm hex heads, allen head bits and recently torx security bits to handle screws like the op`s. And, of course, the weird screws always show up on nights or weekends when the technicians are gone and their toolboxes are locked.
Please Angus, when you decide to trade the thing, either swap back the screws or take your matching bit to the dealer to make life a bit easier on the guy changing the plate. All these years I`ve only had one person supply an appropriate bit. The rest suffered the wrath of my vise-grips.

Bill

I work at a dealer too and some of the things I have to do to get plates off is ridiculous. The worst is when the want to transfer tags which eliminates the option of just ripping the plates off.

And Angus, nice job! It`s the details that make the difference and rust drips from crappy screws really does make a car a whole lot worse. Appropriate screws and a slim, clean bracket really makes a difference.

[Pats300zx]

Sharp and clean Angus...Looking good.

[tom p.]

...and don`t overlook your local hardware store as a source of lots of appropriate stainless steel fasteners...

[TroyScherer]

Very nice.


I got lucky and my Acura had plastic screws for the plates. as they faded I simply pulled them off and painted them with sliver spray paint to keep them looking new. But high quality stainless is a great option IMO.

[Angus]

I work at a dealer too and some of the things I have to do to get plates off is ridiculous. The worst is when the want to transfer tags which eliminates the option of just ripping the plates off.

And Angus, nice job! It`s the details that make the difference and rust drips from crappy screws really does make a car a whole lot worse. Appropriate screws and a slim, clean bracket really makes a difference.

Thank you, Sir! Those screws have been bugging me for a while. I`m glad the rusty one are GONE.

It`s interesting hearing about the headache of removing license plate screws for legitimate reasons. Trust me, all of your comments will be remembered when the time comes.

For background, the reason I went with the special star bit "security" screw vs Phillips pan head screw was because a while back the license plate was stolen off my brothers truck. Even though he promptly reported stolen to the state and got a new plate, the DMV screwed up and never filed the report... which turned into a enormous headache. When the guy was finally caught driving around with my brothers old plate - he had racked up a over a $1000 worth of unpaid parking tickets in my brother name. To make matters worse, my brother had to take him to court to get the whole thing straighten out.

Sharp and clean Angus...Looking good.

Thanks, Pat!

...and don`t overlook your local hardware store as a source of lots of appropriate stainless steel fasteners...

Lots and lots to choose from. Lowes had a whole drawer full of replacement license plate mount points.

Very nice.


I got lucky and my Acura had plastic screws for the plates. as they faded I simply pulled them off and painted them with sliver spray paint to keep them looking new. But high quality stainless is a great option IMO.

Thanks, Troy!