My front and back plates were mounted at the dealer using only the top two holes. On the back the plastic grommets to screw into are only at the top, with no holes in the metal to put bottom grommets/screws in, so every time I close the trunk the plate+frame slams against the trunklid and vibrates loud. On the front the holes were drilled in the very top of the mount so the plate hangs too low to put bottom screws in without moving the whole plate up. Just wondering if anyone else's car came like this.

 

Yes, this is the same on all 7th gen Maximas. The first thing I do on almost any car is to buy small soft plastic (cheap, waterproof and permanent) bumpers/pads at any hardware store and mount them on the back of the license plate along the bottom edge; one in each bottom corner, and one at the bottom center. Now closing the trunk no longer causes that loud rattle that draws laughter from bystanders.

 

Thanks light I will try that, just seems strange to me that they wouldn't put holes there...

 

I'm not sure I recall owning any recent car that had four screw holes for the license plate. But my memory is fuzzy.

Most states have simlar size plates these days (I think the government may have regulated this), but as recently as twenty years ago, some state license plates varied in shape and size, with the lateral distance between the two mounting holes being the only common measurement. I think New Jersey may have been the last state to change to a uniform size (their plate was narrow for most of the 1900s).

Cars came with a license plate mounting bar from around 1920 until sometime around WWII, and that bar had two screw openings, each several inches wide, so that any size plate could be mounted on it, using either the top holes of the plate, or the bottom holes of the plate, but never both.

Most folks these days put their plate in a frame (that has a bottom slot that holds the bottom edge of the plate) before attaching it to the car. I do that, so actually put the soft plastic bumpers along the bottom of the back of the frame. I get no rattle whatever when I close the trunk. Of course I don't slam the trunk lid very hard, as that serves no purpose.