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I pulled off the side of the road for a hike and the right front tire dropped into a narrow one-foot deep ditch hidden under grass. The wheel deflection was enough to make the tire push upward and rub against the wheel well liner. The tire tread grabbed hold of the liner, like a grizzly bear with claws, and just peeled it right off. I heard a thump under the rear tire, looked in the rear view mirror, and saw a lump on the shoulder behind me. Darn.
The wheel well liner lying under the car:
You can continue to drive without the liner. It just means that water will splash up into the engine compartment.
Ordered the new part online. Cheap at $35. The original (top) was a molded thick felt-like material, presumably to dampen tire noise. They don't seem to make that any more. The new part (bottom) was just plastic.
This should be easy to install myself, right? I figured it might take an hour. Remove the wheel, use the snap fasteners to attach the new one, done!
It turned out to take me 4 hours...
It's supposed to be a plug-and-play part, ready to install. I found that some of the pre-drilled holes for fasteners did not exist in the new part. So, I had to figure out where to make my own new holes, to match up with the holes in the car frame behind it. Omit some fasteners, and it's likely to come loose again in the near future. Snuggle the old piece on top of the new piece, where the holes are missing, put a white marker through to mark the spot on the new part. Drill a 1/4" hole. There were about three missing holes.
What's the shovel for? I never heard of a shovel being used for a car repair before. Well, you have now. The lug nuts were so darned tight that I couldn't budge them with the lug wrench. In fact, I was bending the wrench trying. Penetrating oil didn't help. I needed leverage, and I don't have a cheater pipe. I hooked the shovel blade under one side of the wrench, and the handle under the other side. That added about five feet of leverage. Snap! That was the sound of the lug nuts breaking free. It was so loud that I was afraid I had snapped the bolt off. Nope, everything was good.
Wheel off. Ready to fit the new fender liner inside the wheel well. Tire under the car just in case the jack gives out, so I don't get crushed. You can see the bare bones inside, which are normally covered by the liner.
The fasteners were a pain. There were four different types, Some were metal screws, reusable. I had to draw a diagram to keep track of which type went where, so I could reassemble properly. And of course, the plastic push pins, in small heads and big heads, are rarely undone in a condition where they can be reused. So you have to make a trip to the auto parts store to buy new ones. Just go ahead and buy them up front - you'll need them.
New liner installed. Dirty, but done. It's like a wrestling match, trying to get that long curved piece up into place while you click in the fasteners.
Follow-up. The tightness of the lug nuts got me worried, about having a flat tire out on the road and being unable to remove them to install the spare. So, to help out, I bought a "cheater pipe" to slip over the lug wrench to extend the handle and apply more force. An old mechanic's trick. It's now stowed in back with the jack.
Wheel Well Liner
