removing/cleaning inside front guards/fenders

[emilmh]

Hi,

Can anyone explain or post a link to a document showing whats involved with cleaning the organic debris (aka the compost) which builds up inside the front fender/guard (behind the front wheels, but infront of the door). I don't think i have any sort of extreme problem, but i can see leaf litter and the like collected in there, and i dont want moisture building up cauing rust. As far as I can see the only way to clean it out properly (and treat it wish some fish oil) is to remove the whole front 1/4 panels...? This seems like it requires quite a bit of work as i can see fasteners hidden behind the panel, and don't want to uneccessarily rip apart half my front end and then not be able to align the panels or something.

So any links or advise people can give?

Cheers,
Emil

[hks_kansei]

no need to remove the whole panel.

undo the plastic splash guard (in the wheelarch)

undo the screws on the bottom of the guard (from memory there's two underneath, and one in whe wheel well)

pull the bottom of the guard out a bit and get your hand in there and scoop the leaves and stuff out.

[philz]

No you don't have to remove the panel.

But I just did it, cause I just wanted to play around with the car, as well as making the area clean as possible.

no before photo unfortunately, and how much grub there was.

[emilmh]

thanks for the advice.

Philz- Is it very difficult and/or time consuming to remove the whole panel? What about realigning it?
If possible i would prefer to take it off, as you said, to clean it as much as possible, and do some rust proofing.

cheers

[philz]

To be honest I sort of forget the steps.

But iirc I had to remove the front bumper as well, to get at the side bolts for the guards (in yellow), the rest of the bolts are shown in the photo, from what I can remember.

It's time consuming 1-2hrs?, but I did cut some corners, ie/ not removing the wheel, and inner guards to get at the clips or the really fiddly one which is in the middle of guard, and requires some patience and really skinny arms and hands.

Realignment of panels is pretty easy.



Note: that's not all of the bolts, there are more but these are most of em.

Would I do it again? Probably not, but then I don't see why I will ever do it again, or maybe in another 10 years?

[trader]

That's where I found my long lost windscreen wiper arm cap!

[Guran]

What about realigning it?

I removed mine almost completely, except for the "yellow" ones underneath the front bumper (refer above photo). There wasn't really much play in the alignment of the fender except for the "red" bolt midway between the top and bottom of the door. That one is tricky to access and needs a few extenders joined together on a socket wrench. The retaining clip on the fender is U-shaped so you can adjust the fender in/out until it aligns with the door. It's relatively easy to adjust and get the alignment right.

Removing the little plastic clips from the wheel arch liner is a bit tricky. You need a Phillips head screwdriver to undo them. But sometimes they slip and don't engage the thread. If this happens, you can use a small flathead screwdriver to wedge under the head of the plastic bolt in the middle of the clip. Just lift the bolt head slightly and it'll engage the thread, allowing you to screw it out with the Phillips head screwdriver.

Much easier to do this job with the car up on jack stands and the wheel removed.

BTW, I had ants nesting in the dirt collected in my NA6!

[Mr Morlock]

HKS is right- there is no need to go to so much trouble. Generally the less that you have to disassemble on a car the better . An air hose is likely also to be a useful aid in removing debris.

[MINX]

Here is an easy and fun way to clean out the guards!