Both bolts welded to trunk lid broke off due to vibration. Honda dealer said to take it to body shop for rewelding. I can't believe this is the only solution - would like to strengthen the mount so it doesn't happen again. Possibly adding a bracket like the front has... any ideas?

 

I've never heard of that happening, and would suspect someone over-torqued the bolts, say using some kind of of powered driver. They're small bolts, designed for 5~10 foot/pounds, nothing more.

I take my rear plate off occasionally when washing the car (reinstall the bolts without the plate, so I don't spray water into the trunk). On reinstall of the plate I'll lightly coat the bolts with rust prevention oil, and then just gently wrench tighten them by hand.

What exactly happened? There are tack-welded nuts on the inside of the trunk lid, I believe. Did they break loose? Or did the bolt heads shear? Just guessing that the tacked nuts broke, they would need to weld some new ones, and then touch-up paint the area.

 

My '04 has a rear license plate that rattles; I have to hold onto it when I close the trunk or it'll rattle like crazy.
Honda probably improved the license plate holders on the second generation HCH.

 

The tack-welds broke, first the right one... think it was the extra weight of the chrome UC Davis frame. Jury-rigged it for several months by reseating the bolt / nut in the hole each time the trunk lid was closed. The left tack-weld parted yesterday but luckily the plate fell off in my hand.
Thx for reply. Guess a body shop is my only alternative.

 

You could also just put a comparable bolt and nut assembly on, doesn't have to be metric, maybe with some sort of plastic washer behind the nut to form into any imperfections from tack-weld remnants.

If you use a domed round headed bolt (not hex head, think it's called a carriage bolt, if square shouldered)) it's actually more secure: you need to open the trunk and spin off the nut to remove it.

My approach is not to bother with this though: hardening a target can just mean bigger holes in your car if a determined thief wants your plate