Front fender liners - necessary or optional?

[Adam West]

Yesterday is the second time my fender liner and I have parted ways...

First was a cone at track day and I rushed out to WY to get another one ASAP - should I do so again?

This time I was fooling around with my foglight holes and removed the covers - so I was doing about 90 mph when I blew it out again on the highway. First the noise, then they slap and silence, and then the crap flopping down the road behind me n the rear view...

Missing the right side (intake side) fender liner and I see some ABS wiring looms etc up there - anything that can't get totally wet? Because it is very wet here being Seattle...

But I really don't want to run back to the WY buy another one right away since I'm going to be fooling around down there trying to mount the JDM fogs I got from Blackbart anyway.

Opinions? Potential pitfalls?

Thanks in advance for the wisdom! ~Adam

[New92]

My intake side has never been installed since I had the car. Im in the south so the salt and such are not really an issue. Id say pull them and then spray some undercoating to protect the metal.
MY.02Cents

[Splinter]

Id imagine you'd pack a lot of mud and dirt up there every time your wheels left pavement

[New92]

Hmm...can you tell I only run street? Thats a very good and obvious point. Curse on me for my hasty advice. Only running street though has never procured any problems.

[Soul Shinobi]

Don't forget the airbag sensors (if equipped) are behind the fenders there (they are usually yellow with yellow cable). I think a rock hitting one of those would give you a terrible surprise.

[MPtyza]

This was on a 93 Impreza, but I would assume that it would also apply here.

Anyway, my girlfriend's Impreza somehow lost the right side fender liner, and I thought she'd be fine without it for a couple days until the weekend when I could install the spare I picked up. That whole week it had been raining pretty damn hard. The air filter eventually got completely soaked, to the point where the car would barely run until I got a new filter in there.

[555BCTurbo]

I would run them...or something...because the engine wiring harness runs just under the fender on the driver's side, and I am sure a piece of road debris could completely fubar it...


I am planning on making sheet aluminum ones for my car...because my plastic ones are trashed

[magicmike]

I ran without one on the intake side for a short time and at the time I had a paper air filter in. I didn't have the k&N cleaner kit at the time so I stuck in a paper that I had kicking around. Anyway after noticing poor performance after a heavy week of raining I took the airbox cover off and to my horror there was a hole the size of a golf ball in the air filter and my MAF was almost completely covered with paper bits. I would not recommend running without the liners.

[Adam West]

Thanks Folks - Yeah, I'd better get my butt down to the WY this week. Thanks for the input and perspective. Cheers, Adam

[klaxed]

um yeah not really a good idea to run without the right side fender thiingy. I took mine off to remove my snorkus and didn't put it back on for a couple of weeks. So when it rained water would get up into my intake and probably my engine which would make my car act funny.

[Tleg93]

I think I'd rather run with them in but as far as appearance goes, I think they look crappy. I was going to try and darken them up. They wouldn't look so bad if they were darker and less noticeable.

[Adam West]

Get bigger wheels and lower your car? <grin>