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

[lowlight]

(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.

[OffroadX]

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

[Schludwiller]

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. 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.

[lowlight]

thanks for the advice guys.

[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?

[Schludwiller]

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?

[rrdstarr]

I think he means the broken bolt, Ian?

[OffroadX]

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

[Schludwiller]

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

[hobbes69]

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

[LovetheX]

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.