Rear diffuser bolts and clips

[Billan]

During the 3rd cat delete and valve controller installation it was discovered that the clips and bolts that hold on my diffuser are already pretty rusty (1.3k miles). I want to replace all of the clips and add stainless bolts and washers. Does anyone know where I can source the clips from in a higher quality metal? I can likely find the bolts at a hardware store but buying them direct from someone who's already done the research is preferable.

Thanks!

 

[crestima]

During the 3rd cat delete and valve controller installation it was discovered that the clips and bolts that hold on my diffuser are already pretty rusty (1.3k miles). I want to replace all of the clips and add stainless bolts and washers. Does anyone know where I can source the clips from in a higher quality metal? I can likely find the bolts at a hardware store but buying them direct from someone who's already done the research is preferable.

Thanks!

I also found some, albeit not that many, rusting bolts when I removed my under trays, so I undertook to replace ALL bolts (and only a couple clips) with Stainless Steel ones. I did this not only because of rust prevention, but also because I didn't care for the looks of OEM Frankenstein bolts. Another seemingly minor resulting benefit, is that these stainless steel bolts each weigh 2,3 or even 4 grams less that the OEM equivalent bolts. When you add the stainless steel bolts' collective weight reduction, considering the million or so bolts used on the underbelly of the Emira, it's actually is not that insignificant after all.
I ordered my bolts/clips on Amazon as per the pictures shown below. Some were M6x20s, but you need to order according to the numbers, sizes and lengths of the ones you're planning to change. I found all the sizes needed to exchange all the under body bolts on my car from this same vendor. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Billan]

Perfect, thank you!!!

 

[Rapture]

Perfect, thank you!!!

If you determine the quantity and type needed, please share.

 

[GregT]

If you determine the quantity and type needed, please share.

Ditto that...very rough count would be great.
Thanks in advance.

 

[crestima]

It all depends on which and how many bolts you intend to swap to the stainless steel ones. As I mentioned in my previous post, I changed them all and began by ordering the bolt sizes and quantities based on the specs shown in the service manual's diagrams of the diffuser and under trays (shown below).

As for the remaining bolts i.e. side skirts, wheel arch liners etc, I just removed one OEM bolt from each section, measured it, took a visual count and ordered those. The stainless steel bolts come in natural stainless steel or black for the plastic diffuser and the others for the raw aluminum sections), so if you'd like to match the color of the bolt to the specific panel section you can order accordingly. I decided to color match them to make them more discrete but also because it may help identify where each bolt belongs, should I need to remove two or more panels for a specific project. Finally, since these stainless steel bolts are fairly inexpensive, I'd recommend ordering in excess of the calculated amount and also ordered 3 sizes of stainless steel washers (some OEM bolts have them). I ended up using a good number of the left-overs on the door panels and other sections of the car during my other mods and sound deadening projects. I have saved all my OEM bolts, not because I'm planning to re-install them some day, but because weight reduction is an important part of my mod projects and I was curious about the weight of all the replaced OEM bolts/washers (a damn heavy large bag of them so far) vs the Stainless Steel ones and, believe it or not, the stainless steel ones weigh essentially half.

Hope this is helpful.