Question for Owners: Any Front License Plate Failures?

UberEV1 · Sep 22, 2014

Over the past year plus, I've read here about a number of different approaches owners have taken to mounting their front license plates. I am curious if anyone has experienced a front license plate failure of some kind (e.g. fell off or loosened, audible vibrations, inadvertantly cause damage to another part of the car, etc.). If so, I would be very interested in your story. Thanks!

ecarfan · Sep 22, 2014

Someone posted photos showing how he used zip ties through the grill to mount the front plate. I tried that approach and a few months later one of the ties broke. I changed over to the J-hook technique and have had no problems.

jerry33 · Sep 22, 2014

I used 3M tape to put mine on, and it hasn't fallen off yet.

Todd Burch · Sep 22, 2014

On my first car I used the rare-earth magnet attachment method (a crude, early technique, indeed). While the plate always held strong, I did have some scratching on the nose cone behind the plate--so I wouldn't recommend it. (Install wasn't trivial, either).

My next car comes in a month. I will be using the j-hook attachment method.

aname4me · Sep 22, 2014

I have The Law by Torklift. Specially made for MS. No failure at all. Completely worth the money. I love it.

SteveS0353 · Sep 24, 2014

aname4me said:
I have The Law by Torklift. Specially made for MS. No failure at all. Completely worth the money. I love it.

Ditto for me. The Law by Torklift (Torklift Central - The Law - Tesla Model S Front License Plate Bracket). It's easy to install (only requires a 7/16 wrench and socket), no drilling the nose cone, sturdy and elegant.

Barry · Sep 24, 2014

ecarfan said:
Someone posted photos showing how he used zip ties through the grill to mount the front plate. I tried that approach and a few months later one of the ties broke.

What color were the ties? Typically, the black ones are UV resistant/ The others aren't, and will get brittle and break in a matter of months, depending on the climate.

ecarfan · Sep 24, 2014

Barry said:
What color were the ties? Typically, the black ones are UV resistant/ The others aren't, and will get brittle and break in a matter of months, depending on the climate.

The ties I used were black.

Akikiki · Oct 7, 2014

I used the Show-N-Go purchased on Amazon. It was simple to install, and clever. However, before I mounted my front cam, I could not see how close I was to parking curbs. After the second Show-N-Go was torn off the underside of the car by the parking curbs, I opted to not put a front plate back on. So far a year and have not been caught yet (without the front plate.)

GBK · Oct 7, 2014

Same here. The TorKLift solutions is the best out there

dsm363 · Oct 7, 2014

GBK said:
Same here. The TorKLift solutions is the best out there

Agree. They did a great job.

redi · Oct 7, 2014

There's possibly the option to do nothing. Just passed a year without and no ticket.

Prior car 12 years, one ticket (because I was probably slightly exceeding the speed limit but did not get clocked - and got a retaliatory no-plate fix-it ticket instead).

I consider it sort of a tax.

WeazL · Oct 7, 2014

I used 2 zip-ties. 1 year later and still without issue.

Lloyd · Oct 7, 2014

No failure, No Plate on front! :smile:

ZBB · Oct 7, 2014

What's a front plate? :wink:

breser · Oct 7, 2014

I have the Torklift solution sitting on my family room table waiting for my plate to come. When I first moved to Washington and had Kansas plates I got stopped several times, so I'm not going to bother trying to avoid displaying a front plate. Now if Tesla and the Department of Licensing would get me plates...

islandbayy · Oct 7, 2014

I used the Torklift, works great.

But I run without front plate unless going out of state, which is a 30 second unbolting with the torklift The Law.

MartinAustin · Oct 7, 2014

Those solutions that put the plate lower down where it is in front of the lower grill, and not right on the "dog nose," will exist only for our older Model S cars, but will go away for new cars. The newest cars coming off the production line have a Driver Assistance camera in the front lower grill that it would be inadvisable to block

IMO we need a glass/clear plastic front to the dog nose, and a way to embed the licence plate inside it, behind the clear panel. That way it's right there on the front, but also maintains the aerodynamics of the car.

Slapping a vertical flat plate on the front of Franz von Holzhausen's design kinda ruins the Cd if you ask me.

OR - a way to "press" the license plate into a curved front, so that when it is attached to the front of the dog nose it assumes the exact rounded shape necessary to preserve the Cd.

Akikiki · Oct 7, 2014

MartinAustin said:
Those solutions that put the plate lower down where it is in front of the lower grill, and not right on the "dog nose," will exist only for our older Model S cars, but will go away for new cars. The newest cars coming off the production line have a Driver Assistance camera in the front lower grill that it would be inadvisable to block

IMO we need a glass/clear plastic front to the dog nose, and a way to embed the licence plate inside it, behind the clear panel. That way it's right there on the front, but also maintains the aerodynamics of the car.

Slapping a vertical flat plate on the front of Franz von Holzhausen's design kinda ruins the Cd if you ask me.

OR - a way to "press" the license plate into a curved front, so that when it is attached to the front of the dog nose it assumes the exact rounded shape necessary to preserve the Cd.

M.A. I like your thinking. Tsportline has a thread here that begins with "You asked for it, we made it" where they are showing their chrome nosecone grill. I posted a reply asking Owners to comment on my idea of asking Tsportline to make an extended nosecone that would allow us to hide-a-plate from the bottom up inside along a track that would drop down when we needed to display it.

Would appreciate you folks to comment on your interest in such an animal. I've been writing all kinds of Tesla after market companies to build interest in a hide-a-plate-nosecone.

jkliu47 · Oct 7, 2014

How about an even crazier idea - front license plate attached to part of the nose that only flips out at speeds below say 5MPH, so it shows when stopped or when parked.
When moving, the license plate flips back into nose and is replaced by the streamlined original nose profile thus preserving Cd and looks.

Perhaps a later software revision will geofence this so that the license plate also pops out every time you drive by a Highway patrol station :biggrin:

Question for Owners: Any Front License Plate Failures?

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