Tire Carrier Question

[sclui56]

Replacing the plastic cover you noted will make the wireing harness opening disappear, however, you still have one hole visible to the right of the passenger-side tow hook as the factory tire carrier uses 3 mounting point for the hinge side. If you're not particularly picky, you can always reattach the Bumper Tow Hook Bolt Metric (M12x1.75x65) P/N 11589048 to cover it, but this 65mm bolt is NOT threaded all the way to the head, so you may not be able to drive it all the way flush (check with DAN as he used this method after removing his SUT carrier), in that case, just get the (M12x1.75x55) P/N 11518590 as the shorter bolt is threaded all the way.

FYI, partsguy said you need the standard hooks & shorter bolts, in reality, ALl early 05 SUV's without factory tire carriers had the 65mm bolts installed already, so you could resuse your existing bolts as there's NO stop inside the bumper to prevent this.