Noticed a loose striker plate, took out both bolts and heard something fall inside the front door frame post.
There is nothing to mount the striker plate to, looked at the Honda website for schematics and only the plate and bolts are shown in illustration and nothing else.
Went to advanced auto and they were basically lost, told me to try my luck at a junk yard.
Any suggestions.

Notice no threads for striker bolts.

Trying to post pics.

 

There suppose to be a back plate there. You could try fishing it out with a magnet.

 

Tried with the magnet on a stick. Couldn't get it bent enough I believe.
Tried nylon bolts, striker mount not tight enough to frame to turn off door ajar light.

 

What year car?

Maybe captive nuts were spot-welded to the back side of the sheet metal & they broke off. Look for some blind nuts ("Plusnut" or something like that) which can be all-metal and stronger.

 

2004 LX 5bspeed Manual

 

If you can't fish the plate out; an option would be to make your own.

Get a metal plate. Tap screw threads to match the striker's bolts thread pitch and bolt locations.

Insert and the back plate through the opening, while holding it through the bottom opening. Attach striker plate and loosely screw in the top bolt first, do not tighten all the way. Next loosely screw in the bottom bolt. Adjust striker plate to desired position and tighten bolts.

Idea Note: To try to hold the plate in place while installing the top bolt, insert something like a plastic wire tie, etc., then cut off/remove after the top bolt is loosely screwed in.

 

Now that I think about it, that plate would have to be able to move around in order to adjust the position of the striker. So it would have been trapped in a way that it can move around but not fall down into the bottom of the B-pillar.

It won't fit through those holes in the photo, so how would you get that plate into position? Is the B-pillar open at some point if you remove enough of the plastic trim inside the car?

 

On most Hondas, the plate has a ridge to prevent it from moving around. The best fix would be to get or retrieve the OEM plate. Honda doesn't even seem to list that plate in the parts diagrams.

Otherwise, just welding the striker in place after it is position properly would make it not move.

A homemade plate can fit if it is insert through one of the holes (inserting from the top hole is probably the best due to gravity). A homemade plate may have to be re-positioned and re-tighten every now and then.

The service manuals only recommend to loosen; but, not remove the bolts when repositioning the striker.

 

Good ideal

 

I probably would use two plastic zip ties, with one in each hole. Insert plate in top opening while holding plastic tie attached to top hole. Next, grab with pliers or hand the 2nd zip tie at the bottom hole. Pull plate close, cut top zip tie off. Insert and loosely tighten top bolt screw. Next, cut bottom zip tie off and screw in bottom bolt.

A helper probably will help tremendously while trying to attach striker and bolt.