Dealer stripped 4 or 6 bolts on skid plate during oil change

(newbie who has been lurking for a LONG time)

long story short: i used to live in CA and had my oil changed by the dealer for about 1.5 years. i just moved to Spokane, WA after getting laid off. was having my oil changed up here and the guy says to me "you know your skid plate uses 6 screws right? there is only 2 in it right now" so he removed the screws and tried the other holes and sure enough they are all stripped out. this was the first place to touch my X since the dealer, and oddly enough after over a year the dealer never mentioned anything about stripped out bolts....

i don't really do much offroading, mainly just getting to where ever i want to go mountain biking.

any ideas on a fix? would a new skid plate from some after-market place offer the same protection (or more) without using the stock bolts that are now stripped out?

thanks for you help.

The stock bolts are crap. Get some nice grade 8 bolts that are a tad bigger and let them cut new threads in the welded nuts and you'll be set.

Brent

I lost my stock skid plate bolts in my garage (I swap between my skid row plates during the off-season). Instead of trying a bunch of bolts, I called Nissan to see if they had any. I had to laugh. The guy finally found 3, and said they were $1.50 each. :eek: I kept looking in the garage and found two of the old ones, went out and bought all new grade 8's for $1.50 or so.

I would make sure they know Nissan did your oil changes (bring in the receipst), so they don't try and charge you for the fix.

thanks for the advice guys.

i have two stripped skid plate bolts that are in my x right now is there any way of removing the one piece thats in my x? or do they have to stay the way they are?

Originally posted by LovetheX
i have two stripped skid plate bolts that are in my x right now is there any way of removing the one piece thats in my x? or do they have to stay the way they are?
I don't quite understand the question. What is the "one piece"? Is it your skidplate?

I think he means the broken bolt, Ian?

That's my guess. I was able to remove one of the 3 that had broken off with an extractor bit, but the spiral-type I used just spun in the holes I drilled in the others. I now have a square-shaped extractor that should do the trick, just haven't gotten around to using it.

Brent

Stripped doesn't mean broken to me, just the threads are gone. Guess we'll have to wait for his return. :)

What it looks like he probably ment was that the bolts heads are sheared off.

ok, what i meant was the bolt heads twisted directly off on two of the bolts and the bolts without the heads are stuck in my truck.