Rear License Plate attachment nut gone?

The photo in #18 looks to me less like something welded, and more like some variant of a rivnut.

I don't know about the Gen 4 interior trim panel, but the trick with the Gen 2 or 3 is to grab it and pull. Tools just increase the chance of marring something.

Usually a couple of the plastic retaining clips will stay with the hatch lid instead of the panel, and have to be popped out of there and clipped back into their stations in the plastic panel. It is nice to have some sort of thin clip-head-grabber for doing that, and it's easy because you can see right where they are and, if you make any marks, they'll be hidden by the panel later. I just grab the clip heads in the wire-cutter/stripper pliers that are in my tool bag anyway, and put something like a socket extension under the handle as a fulcrum, and pop the clip out.

-Chap

 

For anyone just reading along, public service announcement: remove the license plate (both front and back plate) screws periodically (say yearly, when renewing decals on the plate, or applying wax, and put a drop of oil on the threads. I believe the screws are stainless steel, it's just the weld-nuts that are rusting out? Also, the screws are very likely Japan Industrial Standard cross-head #3:

Japan Industrial Standard (JIS) screw drivers | PriusChat

Maybe a riv-nut could be used as replacement?

Installing rivet nuts on the cheap | PriusChat

 

Or just grab it and pull; nylon pry tools are less likely to leave marks than metal ones, but I like to avoid using anything but my hands when possible, and I think with the hatch trim it usually is.

-Chap

 

Hi there, had the same issue with my Prius 2. Wondering how has the nut held up to Canadian winter? I wish to do replicate the fix. How did you manage to hold the nut in place while applying the glue? Hard for bigger hands to access the back carefully. TIA

 

I was thinking of this but then realized the temperature might break it eventually (hot/cold). Did yours held up? Any pics would be apprecaited.

 

I was able to pick up a couple of these from Lowes... they are also available on Amazon and elsewhere
Plate clips .... Worked well for me