Abdub

Hey Club Lexus, on the GS300 that I purchased I realized that one of the rear license plate screws had been broken off when I tried to put the plates on!

It's been holding on for a while with just one screw, but today I came home and looked at my car and the rear plate was practically folded at a 90 degree angle...So I went out and bought an extraction kit. My brother was doing me with it and he happened to break one of the drill bits inside of the broken screw.

Anyway, now as you can imagine it's incredibly difficult to remove. Does anyone have any recommendations as to either A: Removing the broken screw/drillbit or B: Finding a new way to fasten the license plate to the car?

Something I've considered is drilling through the screw and using a washer/nut on the inside to tighten it. Any ideas are appreciated!

Lukas99GS

The nut method won't work, it just goes into a dead space you can't access, best bet would be to get a punch and one of those drill bits made to extract a broken screw, get it in the busted screw and try turning it out, same thing happened to me because the last owner used some crappy plastic screws

Debonair

If enough of the screw is above the mounting surface you can try and grab it with some vise grips. Or use a dremel to slot it or even put a Philips (cross) into it and back it out with a screwdriver. I would put some penetrating oil on it first and let it soak in too.

A few pictures would probably help with providing useful advice in this situation.

sivikvtec

Not sure if you still need help but...

Remove the lining on the inside of the trunk lid, you will see the screws sticking out. Then get a M6-1.0 cap nut (I used one with UPC 887480118087 from Home Depot)

From the backside of the trunk lid, screw on the cap nut on the threads sticking into the trunk. The cap nut will bottom out, continue turning and you will break loose what is left of the screw.

throttlejo

I drilled it out threw the back and reattached with rivets .no body can just unscrew it .