Rear end rusting out...

bALLISTIC

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Mazda 2013 cx-5 touring (lemon)
Went to swap out the plate today and both plate bolts snapped off at the head. Turns out the factory or dealer screws are mounted straight into the rear steel panel...no welded in nuts.. just right into the body. The broken bolts and the area surrounding are rusted to s*** underneath the paint..

Piss poor design...this is not a long term vehicle.
 
Went to swap out the plate today and both plate bolts snapped off at the head. Turns out the factory or dealer screws are mounted straight into the rear steel panel...no welded in nuts.. just right into the body. The broken bolts and the area surrounding are rusted to s*** underneath the paint..

Piss poor design...this is not a long term vehicle.
While I can see certain areas on CX-5 Mazda has demonstrated "penny wise and pound foolish" attitude, but I believe this is not one of them. I personally installed our rear license plate. The design of mounting is not the best, but it does have two holes with nut build-in. Unless your 2013 CX-5 has nothing designed for mounting the plate and dealer had to use sheet-metal screws making holes on the liftgate like mounting the front one, then I'd agree.

Yeah, the way to mount the front license plate is as cheap as it can be - not even a cheap plastic bracket like many other car manufactures. That's why I chose not to mount it.
 
Most modern cars are si,liar. A lot depends on how much salt goes on the road in winter. The first job on mine when new was to give it a good coat of wax underseal......

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Of course, its your prerogative to change brands but its a bit naive to think any of the others are much different.
 
Most modern cars are si,liar. A lot depends on how much salt goes on the road in winter. The first job on mine when new was to give it a good coat of wax underseal......

IMG_2084_zpsvvfjkcbl.jpg


IMG_2087_zps08mtuk2o.jpg


image_zpsfykff2dx.jpeg


Of course, its your prerogative to change brands but its a bit naive to think any of the others are much different.

What is "wax underseal"? Never heard of it... Heard of the standard rubberized undercoating (which is bad), but never wax underseal. Thanks for further info.
 
Planning on it...two sets of rear rotors/pads, rusty rear end, and more rust on components underneath...all within three years 34k miles...straight junk..
Have you looked at the 17' Mirage? 55mpg
 
I took off my rear license plate to put some all weather, self-stick gasket around the frame. Mine is a 2016 and there are two holes for mounting. Unlike my Honda Odyssey where the nuts are plastic, these are metal. Is there the likelihood of this becoming a corrosion issue down the road?
 
I took off my rear license plate to put some all weather, self-stick gasket around the frame. Mine is a 2016 and there are two holes for mounting. Unlike my Honda Odyssey where the nuts are plastic, these are metal. Is there the likelihood of this becoming a corrosion issue down the road?
Possible. That's why people are using stainless screws to mount rear license plate. I did applied some grease to FOUR screws for the rear plate on our VW Passat with similar design but with four holes. After 15 years there're some rust but we don't see too much rain and our winter doesn't have too much salt on the road.

For OP's 2013 CX-5, apparently there's nothing designed to hold the plate. Dealer had to use sheet metal screw and screw straight into the liftgate steel panel to hold the plate. No wonder that area are all rusted.
 
Most modern cars are si,liar. A lot depends on how much salt goes on the road in winter. The first job on mine when new was to give it a good coat of wax underseal......



Of course, its your prerogative to change brands but its a bit naive to think any of the others are much different.

What the hell is "si,liar"?
 
Possible. That's why people are using stainless screws to mount rear license plate. I did applied some grease to FOUR screws for the rear plate on our VW Passat with similar design but with four holes. After 15 years there're some rust but we don't see too much rain and our winter doesn't have too much salt on the road.

For OP's 2013 CX-5, apparently there's nothing designed to hold the plate. Dealer had to use sheet metal screw and screw straight into the liftgate steel panel to hold the plate. No wonder that area are all rusted.

Thanks - I have what the dealer used, which are unlikely to be stainless. What type of grease did you use?
 
Thanks - I have what the dealer used, which are unlikely to be stainless. What type of grease did you use?
I used dealer's plastic plate as a big gasket sitting between license plate and steel panel to prevent any noise and scratches to the paint by metal license plate. I also added a spring washer and flat washer with dealer supplied zinc plated screw to make sure it won't get loose easily. I just applied any grease found in the garage to prevent rust. I'd think any silicon sealer can do the job and prevent water leaks into the liftgate through these two screw holes.
 
I took off my rear license plate to put some all weather, self-stick gasket around the frame. Mine is a 2016 and there are two holes for mounting. Unlike my Honda Odyssey where the nuts are plastic, these are metal. Is there the likelihood of this becoming a corrosion issue down the road?

Well ya..it happened to me. Now Im gonna need about 400-1000$ worth of body repair.
 
I used dealer's plastic plate as a big gasket sitting between license plate and steel panel to prevent any noise and scratches to the paint by metal license plate.

I have rust underneath the paint where my dealers plastic plate border rested against the body..not sure how road salt penetrated the paint as its not scratched..
Very disappointed...
 
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