Here is my situation. I have a license plate frame that I was changing out on my car (04 TL). Took one of the bolts out and then the 2nd one snapped off about a quarter of the way out. So I get one of those screw extractors and drill a hole, put the extrater in the hole, and start to attempt to remove the sheared bolt. Well, as luck would have it, the extrator broke the same way.

In attempting to drill out the bolt and extractor, I discovered that the extractor metal is made of hardened steel of some sort and will not budge for any drill bit I have or later bought. In fact, all I did was dull the bits I had.

So I proceed to try to reach it from the back side by taking the trunk apart. Well, thats a no go unless I drill a hole through the trunk metal because the two attachment areas are behind solid sheet metal for the trunk.

In doing a little research, I discovered that I may need to purchase a diamond tip drill bit ($50 + in price) or a carbide drill bit (again pricy and very fragile) to even have a chance at removal. But even with either bit, there is no guarantee. And as you are well aware, you cannot heat that area due to the plastic surrounding the area. It can be removed but will not help out much because that piece is one with the trunk. I am sort of at a loss as to how this can happen to a car that has been well taken care of and has no other problem. I guess Murphy's Law was working against me on this one.

Any ideas or solutions on how to resolve this problem would be welcome. Thanks in advance for your comments and ideas.

 

Ouch! Not sure what to tell you on this one. You may want to repost this here though:

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-problems-fixes-114/

 

Will repost in right forum. I apologize for not posting in the right place.

 

Holy crap man that sucks hope you get that fixed somehow.