I had not ordered the tool, as I had hope the dealer would either take out the 2 bolts, or let me use their tool for a minute. Neither happened, so I drove home from pickup with the front plate on. I have a 45°, but not a 90° needle nose pliers. Tried for 5 minutes, but the 45° did not really work. I was going to order the tool, but with standard shipping it was 2+ weeks estimate, so decided to give it more 1 shot. Giving it a little more thinking before going back to the aggravating 45 pliers, I tried this: 11/32 6-point Socket, and put a rubber band partially inside the socket. Had both bolts off in less than a minute. I would have had no issue ordering the tool, had I done it 2 weeks ahead of my delivery, but being an optimist, I was hoping the delivery center would be nice and take the 2 bolts out. Anyways - just wanted to pass along the 11/32 socket and rubber band trick, and maybe help someone else in a bind, that did not want to let their glue sit on the bumper any longer than necessary. My opinion - Front looks so much better with no plate holder. BTW - After getting my fingers pinched from the 45° pliers multiple times as my fingers slipped and finally gloating in my victory as the plate holder lay next to my new Tesla -- my wife comes outside and says, "why did you take that zero emission plate off the front, I liked that". Ugh. It's NOT going back on ... ~Scott
The S does not pass the 5mph bumper crash test without it. You have to hit a wall at <5mph and have no damage. The S cannot do that without the front plate.
I’ve read this a few times on here but still find it hard to believe. Does anyone have a source for this information?
