There's been this rattling coming from the back of my car that really started driving me nuts within the last couple of months. I think that it started bugging me because I started driving with the rear seats down (out of laziness), which made the rattling really noticeable. It sounded like something hard rattling.... like glass.

Then it occured to me that it must be the license plate, so when I walked by the rear of my car today I finally got the notion to take off the plate and see what I could do to stop the noise.

Guess what? The damnable dealer frame has these bolts on the bottom that have been digging into the PAINT of my car! Forget the rattle! My car has these two circular gouges that are down to the metal in some places! WTF!

The dealer's gonna hear about this one.

First, I stuck electrical tape onto the bolts after cleaning off the dirt to stop further damage. Then, I said "To hell with that tinny frame!" and mounted the plate alone, but be warned that I had to tape some foam to the plate to keep it from scraping too.

Lesson to everyone: do NOT leave the dealer's plate on your car without first making sure that it's not scraping your paint.
Same goes for aftermarket.
These things should really be bolted down at all four points rather than just the top two.

Any nice plate frames that don't rattle or scrape paint?

Here's one of the gouges:

 

I took mone off at the dealers and told them I would NOT be doing any free advertising for them. Replaced it with a simple black PLASTIC frame before driving off the lot.

Go plastic for more protection from scratchs.

 

I think DynaMat makes license plate inserts...that might help. I noticed that the front plate rattles on my car a little even with the stock system going at a medium level, so that'll fix two birds with one stone.

 

I will have to check mine? I didn't mind the dealer advertising plate frame but told them I would break their fingers if they put any vinyl or any other kind of advertising on the paint. I HATE THAT.