Here in Washington, the front plate is required. The enforcement is getting tougher, as is the fine. I think it is $175 for not having one mounted. (The enforcement announcement coincided with the introduction of laser, go figure...)
Anyway, the front braket will not accept a license frame very well. The provided self tapping screws are too short, and it you put longer ones in, the tips will stick in the front bumper. I have yet to mount the front plate on the car. The preferred way to put on the plate is by using nut and bolt, but there is no clearance in the back of the mounting bracket.
Any other mounting solutions?
Also, what are the brass threaded inserts for on the bracket?
Thanks
2002 Sterling Grey M5, black lux interior, sound.
2001 VW Jetta tdi, 40 mpg city car, semi-disposable
2000 Suburban, boat towing, family hauler
2000 BMW 1100RT, can you say, out accelerate the M5?
You could always find a way to register the car in another state - one that either requires no front plate, or else is far enough away from WA that the cops don't know whether that state issues them. My car's registered in NH, and though NH technically requires a front plate, the local IL cops don't know that and they leave me alone.
I did think about that..I got pulled over a while back. I didn't get a ticket for not having a license plate up front. I just told the police officer that the dealership had forgotten to put the plates up front. I still have the plates in the trunk in case I have to put them on one day. I know for a fact that if you do get pulled over for having no plates up front that you could take the fix-it ticket to court and get it reduced to $10. On my Tundra pickup the plates are mounted via a bracket that's UNDER the bumper. I'd like to use that same solution on the M5 but I haven't been able to figure out a way to actually put it on that'd be done in a way where it would be strong enough to withstand high speeds. Any ideas??
You should be able to find a couple L braces that could attach invisibly in the "roof" of the air intake below the bumper. Combined with some adhesive-backed foam rubber (weather stripping) to protect the bumper from the brackets and plate, you've attached the plate to the car solidly enough to get the ticket dismissed, and when you get home, you can remove it without a visible scratch on the bumper!
Since the "roof of the air intake" is plastic, you don't have to worry about corrosion, although I don't know if there is some metal up there that might get pierced...
Another possibility is to just use double-sided tape to attach the plate to the bumper (built-in padding!), and remove it as soon as possible to get the goo off.
Go one better; use a hinge, that would allow the plate to "blow back" They would not be able to use a laser on it while you are moving and it would hang down when you are stopped.
The real reason for the interest in enforcing the front plate rule all of a sudden is the advent of red light cameras. Bedard talks about it in the current issue of Car&Driver (Feb. 2002). The phototicket is like $175, but (evidently until recently) the fine for lack of a front license plate is/was like $15. So they were finding about 25% of the violators didn't have front plates. Duh. As a result, some places just stake out camera equipped intersections and hand out fix it tickets like candy. IMHO, the whole thing stinks. The way to avoid red light running is to make the yellow lights last a reasonable amount of time. When they do that, the revenue drops, which is should, as it means increased safety. But since the real reason is to make money (Lockheed-Martin, who makes these things, gets about $50+ from each ticket), there is a clause in the new contract stating that the city can't change the duration of the yellow. So some jurisdictions make the yellow lights short on purpose to increase revenue. Sounds like someone needs to make a constitutional challenge.
someone correct me if i'm wrong because i'm not sure enough to put any money on it, but last i knew, in california the duration of the yellow really doesn't have that huge an effect on the number of people who would either get or not get a red light ticket.
about 10 years ago at least, the requirement was that your car break the plane of the street crossing, not be halfway across or all the way across before the light turned red.
Front license plate bracket....
Linear Mode
