I did a routine oil change for the 25th time or so, and one of the 10mm bolts snapped holding the wheel well's plastic. I decided to try to get another off of another plastic adjacent to it, and it too snapped!

It was Milwaukee hammer drill time. Since I don't own screw extractors, I just drilled progressively larger holes through the center of the 10mm bolt until it sheared into pieces. This was a similar experience in replacing a broken fog.

When I see how much rust has attacked the underside of the vehicle (artic white), I wonder if a 2k9 will be like that 10 years from now. I think they've made a lot of improvements since 98....

 

u know one thing u just gave me an ides while i waz putting on my fog lamps bracket one bolt brokee and snapped and i waz thinking should i wire tie it but i think ill try to drill out the bolt, wat i do is every 3 months or so i wash the under carriage of my car just to be safe

 

y are u removing the plastic anywayz?

 

Removing oil filter^^^

 

you dont need to do that... is what i was getting at.. just stick ur hand in there and remove it...

 

ohh,ok. Neverdid it that way. The space just didnt look welcoming from through the top.

 

pull the cover to the side stick your tool in and loosen. stick hand in and twist off old oil filter, install is reverse with new filter. wash off oil that fell on plastic

 

I've always done it by removing the right front plastic and then using a pair of Channel Locks to grab the filter. I'm pretty sure that the dealer does the same thing, because I used to take it to the dealer up to 60k. When I began DIY, I noticed that all of the bolts were missing except for two (lazy a** C techs)....imagine, my first oil changes at the Nissan dealerships were $17.99.....can barely buy 4 qts of Castrol GTX 5W30 for that little today....