http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...etirecover.jpg

From what I can tell. it'* all there.

Move the cover around a bit while tightening the center hold down. It'll slip into place and look right.

i think hes worried about the bolt ripping his carpet from the pics. none of my cars' bolts are long enough to go out of the cover like that

Ohhhh...Good eye.

Looks like the threaded rod came throught the handle. rethread the rod w/o sticking it through the handle...then it should sit flush.. you may need to glue it in or pick up another handle.

that threaded rod should be attached to the car under the spare tire.
is it? it will have a slide on hook type of thing there.

if it is. then you somehow have a rod that is to long. maybe it was replaced from
a different car. being a 05 it is doubtful though.
you could always cut it down.

I'll rip it apart tonight and see if it isn't installed properly. That is my concern because the backing of the carpet was ripping. I thought maybe there was another cap that screwed onto the rod.

im guessing that it is just overtightened.. make sure that the cover is latched into the rear-trunk trim piece, of it isnt latched into there, it is very easy to not know how far down to tighten the bolt.

ok whats the story? was it attatched to the car or what?

I took it all apart and everything looked OK. I think maybe it was tightened to much. Right now i have a rbig red plastic lid on it to protect the carpet. I'm gonna see if i can find something to prop under it before tightening it, so the boilt doesn't stick out so much..