Quote:
Originally Posted by sayemthree
I have a November 15 build and it looks like I have the rubbery plastic frame does anybody have a picture of the metal license plate frame? And is it better for attaching the license plate?
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The only difference between the 'good' rear license plate bracket (Part# ...0607) which BMW used for years and discontinued in early 2019 and the 'bad' poorly designed bracket (Part# ...8724) which began use in early 2019, seems to be the design of the four screw hole attachment points for the actual license plate (and frame of choice). Neither bracket is all metal, and to avoid confusion, this part is referred to as 'bracket', whereas the 'frame' is what holds a license plate to this bracket.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sayemthree
Looks like there is very little difference between the old and the new one except for the one that you prefer seems to have nylon inserts for the threads?
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The only difference (and it is major) lies in the design of the four screw holes and screws used to attach a license plate and frame to this bracket on a vehicle, but they aren't nylon. The good one (Part# ...0607) has thin-threaded metal alloy guides to seat thin-threaded machine screws. This has very low potential to damage the paint behind the bracket. The bad one (Part# ...8724) just has smooth holes in the rubbery plastic material, into which the self-tapping wide-threaded screws cut until they are seated. The problem is the screw kit BMW provides contains only a few screw lengths starting with really short screws which barely hold, whereas the next size seems too long and can cut into the paint before fully seated depending on the thickness of one's license plate and frame (which happened to my F97 at all four screw locations). I've never had a license plate screw damage/chip the paint (as this inferior bracket did to my F97) on any of our vehicles over the years (and that includes 13 previous BMW models). Even some of the Sales team indicated issues installing the new brackets on vehicles. No one seems to know why BMW made the change, as surely we're talking only a few pennies of savings in their production costs.