CarGuyNVA

Greetings all,

I’ve never really been thrilled with the factory rear license plate mounting configuration for the Macan. As you all know, the rear bumper is setup for mounting with the two top holes only via the imprinted ‘dimples’ on the bumper cover. There are no pre-defined ‘dimples’ to use bolts for the two lower screws (although you could drill/place your own, but hardly elegant).

This results in the plate mounted only with the top two screws, tapped directly into the rather soft plastic bumper cover. By comparison my Cayenne had four screw mounting with machine screws into metal inserts...much better and more solid/refined.

I recently purchased one of the newly released Porsche OEM carbon fiber license plate frames with the ‘GTS’ logo (did u even know about these?...I discovered them by chance and verified their existence with my parts dept.). These OEM plate frames have 4 mounting holes, so the search began for a better, more solid solution to mounting the rear plate and plate frame on the Macan.

Enter the 911. Previous gen 911s came with a plastic mounting base that attached to the rear bumper cover with two screws centered near the outer edges, then on this base are 4 small diamond shape holes where the plate is mounted with short screws directly to the base. After looking at this 911 mounting base, I discovered that the Macan bumper cover has two small additional holes from the factory that align exactly with the location of these mounting holes on the 911 mounting base. If you remove your plate and look at the rear bumper cover, you’ll see these two additional holes lower and further out toward the edges (pics are below).

Furthermore this mounting base plate allows the license plate to be totally isolated and not in contact with the painted bumper cover, another big plus!

With the base in place (I used two 8 x 3/4 stainless sheet metal screws with tapered heads) it attaches perfectly via the two pre-defined small holes in the Macan bumper cover, resulting in a rock solid mount. The area of the Macan’s bumper cover where these two holes are located seems better fortified, and thus the screws go in solid (don’t use a powered screwdriver for any of this stuff, hand tighten only...old school).

Then after placing the license plate in the plate frame on the base plate and lining it all up, I just used 4 short 8 x 1/4 sized stainless mounting screws to secure the plate. Using this 911 mounting base plate also ensures that everything is perfectly aligned and straight when finished. Once installed this way, everything is absolutely rock solid too, zero movement or vibration.

It all works so well, it seems that this rear mounting base should be included with the Macan from the factory! It’s completely ‘plug-n-play’ so to speak, no mods required, just screw it together in no time, it all lines up perfectly. Another advantage is when you have to remove the plate to upgrade your yearly registration decals, you’re removing the plate from the plastic base, not the soft bumper cover where the screws can become less solidly attached with repeated removals/reinstalls. The mounting base is of more solid ABS type plastic, and thus more resistant to wearing out at the mounts. Porsche clearly designed this base with that in mind.

The all important part # for this 911 license plate mounting base is 996-701-107-00. List price is $18.09 but with my PCA discount I got it from dealer for $15.90.

Here’s a few pics of the base plate mounted, and then the completed install. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope this helps a few other Macan owners out there that may have been looking for a better solution to the rear plate mount.

Cheers all.

ExMB

Looks to me like you still only have 2 screws into the "rather soft plastic bumper cover". All you did is change the location of those.

CarGuyNVA

It might seem that way but perhaps you missed the part where I mentioned that the location of those two mounting points is more robust that the upper locations where we’ve all attached the rear plate.

I can say without a doubt that the rear plate is completely solid now versus before. You can’t budge it.

Petza914

Nice work. I hate it when plates are only mounted with 2 screws. Not only do the 2 empty screw holes look bad, but they allow the plate to rattle and vibrate at certain RPMs even when the 2 screws you're supposed to use are tight. I've fabricated different license plate mounts on a couple of my cars (997 with aftermarket bumper and 928).

I use a nylon kitchen cutting board. It's easy to cut and shape. I countersink the mounting holes locations into the surface of it so they're flush when it mounts to the car and for the plate mounts I drill 4 holes in the appropriate positions and from the backside (before installing the mount) insert T-nuts. That gives me metal threads into which to screw the mounting bolts. I also usually put rubber grommets into the 4 license plate holes. This isolates the plate both from the mount and from the decorative metal plate frame so no chance of noise or vibration.

Yes, I already know I'm crazy, ****, and a perfectionist.

Cayenne has the isolating grommets and stainless screws.

997 has the cutting board mount and isolators

928 has the cutting board mount and integrated led license plate lights and IR back up camera frame

914 has a flimsy plate frame so the isolating grommet mounts

CarGuyNVA

Petza914 - Very nice!

Yeah I was glad to find that 911 piece. Worked like it belonged on the Macan from the start! Even the mounting holes were already there for it in the exact locations. Surely Porsche intended those two extra holes on the Macan rear bumper cover for some reason, and I believe that reason to be that the Euro spec Macans do use a plastic base/holder. Just so happened to also work with the US spec 911 base plate I found! Everything is extremely solid now with a much more robust mounting solution to to the vehicle. No mods necessary, all OEM bolt-on as is.