My son just picked up a 2005 G35 Sedan. They had a license plate mount screwed into the tow hook in the front. However, they had obviously hit something with the front end as there are imprints in the bumper cover and the license plate mount (the flat rectangle part) was bent up and rotating, not solid.

I could not get the screw out holding in the license plate mount piece as it was a hex head that had been stripped out. I drilled it out, and that gave access to the post that was screwed into the tow hook location.

It was tight, very hard to turn. We tried some penetrating oil/etc, and eventually I put a pipe wrench on it and it sheared the bolt off in the tow hook mount hole.

While this isn't even a G35 specific question, anyone have any pointers to hints on getting this removed from there? I don't know if the force from the accident originally put such force on it that it munged the threads somehow or what exactly is going on. We can't get to it to work on at the moment, but we plan to try to get a different bumper cover and it should be easier to get to at that time.

What kind of material is that screwed into, and hints on the sheared off bolt removal? If it sheared instead of coming loose with the pipe wrench, it must really be lodged in there.

 

If its tight enough that the pipe wrench sheared it without unscrewing, then that thing’s not gonna come out with any other method.

Can u just leave it in there? Or do u need the hole for something else?

 

Probably will leave it, just fishing for ideas in case it might be easier than I thought. Certainly not essential, many owners probably don’t even know it exists.

 

U can keep drilling into it by using bigger and bigger drill bits progressively. Most license plate mounts are made out of aluminum, so it will probably be easy to drill into.

 

Thanks for the ideas and thoughts, such a great community here. Much appreciated!

 

Removing the front fascia is very straightforward and easy, then you can just unbolt the aluminum bash bar and replace the entire thing. You can probably pick one up at a local pick-n-pull for about $20.

I would definitely want it fixed though, if the vehicle ever did need to be towed up onto a flat bed it's going to destroy a lot of expensive front end components if the tow truck driver doesn't have access to the threaded hub in the bash bar.