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This is the kind where magnets are glued behind the bumper and the plate is fitted with a sticker consisting of some foam padding (to avoid scratches) with embedded steel stripes meant to be attracted by magnets.
I want to be able to take the registration off the bumper for car meets and not have the screw holes visible.
At the same time I'm a bit worried that a strong magnet might compromise parking aid sensors or worse, the pedestrian system sensors.
Any experiences? Maybe there's another way to achieve what I need that I'm not aware of?
Neither would I.
For a little while I did try the retractable solution. After a while I considered it a pain, ordered the proper plate mount and installed it, inverted, over the lower grill with zip ties.
Not a chance. Magnets are strong in the direction of their poles (i.e. perpendicular to the magnet's surface), but have very low shear strength... the design you're proposing places the load on the shear plane of the magnet and your plate will likely slide right off on the first bump. Here is an interesting website on magnet strength in different directions that might explain it better than I can.
There's a plate holder called "Sto 'n' Sho" which might do what you're looking for.
Agreed, it looks better but the lower grille is there for a purpose and not just a design feature. A plate in that position is restricting air flow over the bottom of the radiator.
After scrolling through the last couple years of picture thread, I observed that the best looking plate setup (apart from the lack of plate) is the one where bare plate is affixed to oem holder with colored caps screws.
Some countries' (UK) plates are better suited for this than others but in the end, rubber plugs can be used to mask the screw holes for those couple occassions in a year where I'd like to remove the plate.
A couple of my Mustang owner friends have been using those neodymium sets with success for a couple years, also with ultra legal speeds.
Nevertheless I decided that having safely (from theft and police) mounted plates will save me much potential grief that's not worth the superficial convenience.
In the end I went with Bozzmounts made by Sly Brackets company (google will take you there)
I used MyUS service to ship them to Poland from US, worked flawlessly, waited for around 2 weeks, maybe less.
I got those:
- "BRACKET-FOR-JAGUAR-MODELS-WITH-MESH-STYLE-LOWER-GRILLE"
- "LEVELER"
It was pretty pricey for a bracket (around $140 with shipping to Poland)
The result when done according to included manual is okayish but I think I'll get it better after playing with it for a bit in spare time.
With leveler the plate is really far offset from the bumper, without it it's better but slanted.
I live So Cal. I have no front plate on my XJR 575. A word of warning. I got a no front plate ticket when parked in a Santa Monica municipal parking garage. Cost $25 and take your car into the local station to be examined with the front plate on. If they were to ticket all of the vehicles with no font plate on the PCH; they would be writing 100's of tickets daily.
Registration plate magnets?
