I was washing my jeep and i noticed these little plastic cover thingys in the front of both rear wheel wells. I guess ist supposed to give everything a nice clean look.
So i look closer and find out that its hiding a nice little mud/dirt collector area. Great for causing premature rust and corrosion of the every wonderful jeep rocker pannels.
So i took a knife, and 2 seconds later no more cover and now i can clean out the mud and ice and snow etc when ever i want.
Next step it to paint or rubberized under coat the rear wheel wells, and no one will ever be the wiser.
Before (normally tighter, i just shoved it back in for the pic)
I have an 09 and I don't have those covers. I rince it out when I wash the truck usually. I wonder why jeep didn't have the wheel well liner cover that pocket.
ugh, i have those on my 99 WJ, and no matter how much i try to get dirt and shit out of there i STILL have crap in there from the time i did some serious off roading back in the day before SJ.ne/// i mean, jeepgarage.. ahha
wonder why not all WKs came with this. I agree though, the area the splash shield supposedly protects does fill up with sand. I give the area a rinse when I'm at the car wash to knock out the sand that has gathered.
Simple. Each one costs $8 so $16 a Jeep.. multiply that buy hundreds of thousands of vehicles and that's like saving a million dollars or more over time.
But your missing the point. Those spots gather mud with or with out the cover. Leave the cover on and the mud stays in there and will eventually cause rot. Take them off and hose it out when yo wash the jeep and no rot.
These are a bad thing.
Think of it like the gray lower body cladding on the old ZJ's. How many Zjs (in snowy areas) do you see that dont have rotted rocker pannels because water gets trapped there and rots them out. Almost every ZJ i have seen like XJs have rotted rocker panels under the doors behind the plastic.
Any time you trap moisture on metal it will eventually rot it out.
After you pull them rubberize the wheel wells with undercoat or spary paint it black.
Different regions have different weather and I see what you're saying. Next time I wash the Jeep I'll take a look.
Technically they're not even supposed to be removed because they're held in with the plastic rivet on the end of the rocker panel. When I put mine in, luckily they secured themselves I never had to remove/replace a rivet to get them in tight.
So if yours came from the factory like that, I'm curious as to how you got them of :lol:
They are held in by one clip and a rivet. I took the part in my hand and bent it in towards the ground.
Then i took my utility knife (watch out buys razor blades are sharp) and as i pushed down exposing the tab the rivet goes through. i made 1 cut in the tab that holds it by the rivet, that allowed it to come right off with out removing the rivet. It took less then 20 seconds a side.
If you look in the finished pic the rivet is still there.
If you look at the pic of just the plastic piece you can see the hole at the bottom that the rivet went in, just make a slit in that tab and it will slide off.
Just because an area does not have snow does not mean that mud and sand wont get in there.
No matter where you live, it rains, the roads are dirty, the tires kick up dirt off the ground. Dirt fills that spot over time behind that cover. the dirt stays wet which will eventually lead to rust.
I just think its a stupid part/idea in the first place and will only cause issues in the future when we see WKs in the bone yards 10 years from now.
Mine either... I just rinse it out every time I wash it... But I learned to be at the proper angle to the fender... or else I get covered in mud and whatever other road debris has settled in that area.
Interesting find, i have them on my WK and i never bothered to really look or pay mind to it. Next time i wash the Jeep i will take a look and see what the deal is.
When I put the mopar kit on I took these off and there wasn't much junk in there at all. But I don't have to deal with salted roads during the winter......
I have them in my 07, I actually noticed it as I was installing the running boards. I could not believe the amount of crap that was in there. I guess the previous owner never bothered. Ill leave them on, it doesnt take much to clean.
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