Removing rear wheel well liners?
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
for what it's worth that hasn't been the case with mine, just pulled the liners out to do the rear shocks & I was happy to find the wheel wells in pretty good condition, I do a lot of mud too & it was surprisingly clean behind there.
Keep in mind this is a TJ that has spent all 14 of its years driving all 126,000 of its miles in the rust belt:
Cecil LaGrande
Member
They don't simply fall out, but it isn't difficult to do.
Its easy. Just have to fold them in and remove a few plastic clips. Takes less than 5 min to do both.
greenliftedtj97
TJ Enthusiast
greenliftedtj97
TJ Enthusiast
Maybe. I was surprised by how much I washed out of the crevices after I pulled the liners out of mine.True, but with them in, you don't need to
Timely subject. I was recently under there working on wiring. Enough crap fell in my face to make me question the utility of those liners. Surprised I didn't find a family of raccoons living up there. Since all the wiring back there is now done to marine spec, they may just go away. Put the wires in sheathing / looms, and call it good.
Has anyone in the Phoenix, AZ, area taken their rear wheel well liners out recently or plan on getting rid of them soon? I have been looking for a set but haven’t had any luck at junk yards. They want a crazy amount for them or just don’t have them.
I'm on the fence about this. About to do my flares. So would like to remove them. But moving to WA soon. Where they use a lot of salt on the roads. I'm just thinking about a complete winter season of spraying salt water all up in the undercarriage. For that long of a period of time. Whereas the liners might keep most of that water from washing thru the undercarriage. My Jeep is also my DD. So it's not like a weekend warrior. Where its only occasionally taken out off roading or something. And trying to hose out the undercarriage after every salty trip does not seem doable. I think I might try to keep mine.
The one thing I noticed when I pulled mine was they do hold in a good amount of dirt and moister. I had a bit of surface rust under mine that I wire wheeled and primed before bed lining.
So far I do not hear to much more noise out of the wheel wells then before during normal driving conditions. When I was off-road on a gravel trail I would hear a loud knock every 10 min or so from a rock getting thrown into the fender.
If mine was a daily I would probably of left them in but as a second vehicle the slight amount of extra noise while off-road does not bother me. I am curious though about how they will sound when I go threw a pebble size gravel road that is slightly wet.
That's me just assuming. If something's changed since I moved from there. Would love to know that they don't use salt.
That, plus sand and some deicer that I cannot recall the name of. The use of the salt is a relatively new thing. They (whomever "they" might be) decided that the sand was clogging up drains and whatnot, so they've backed off on its usage, and replaced a portion of it with salt. At least, that's what the local news channels are saying.
In the Puget Sound area, snow is such a rare event that I wouldn't be overly concerned about the amount of salt used. If you're heading to eastern Washington, that might be a different story. Of course, I would prefer no salt at all, but they refuse to let me make these decisions...
In the Puget Sound area, snow is such a rare event that I wouldn't be overly concerned about the amount of salt used. If you're heading to eastern Washington, that might be a different story. Of course, I would prefer no salt at all, but they refuse to let me make these decisions...
I'll be moving to the Granite Falls or east of there area. They get some snow. At least they did last year. Not sure what they used on the roads. But they were clear until about Verlot. And then it looked like no one took care of the roads onward to Silverton. I'd love to live around Silverton. But can't get the wife to make that commute in the snow and ice. Probably be lucky to end up in Granite Falls. She'd love to live in Lake Stevens. But I'll be damned if I move from LA to another subdivision in WA. That just seems like walking backwards to me. I grew up in Darrington. So will be taking my Jeep into the Mt Baker district alot.
Anyway. Back on track.
As much as I'd like to rip my fender well covers out. When I do my flares. I think I'll try to keep them. If nothing else to limit the amount of water that gets splashed up into the undercarriage in that area. It may only be 50% but it's something.
I'm even thinking about painting my undercarriage before moving to WA. Anyone else think that's necessary?
I guess I derailed again. Sorry.
OP
Painting it for what purpose? Rust prevention?
Washington doesn't use salt on the roads. It does however rain A LOT, so you'll still want to take precautionary measures for rust, as water getting trapped in the frame will cause rust over time (not as bad as water with salt though).
Read above. Sounds like they're using salt again.
But ya for rust prevention. I don't want to be one of those guys laying on my back, grinding away on rust 5 years from now and using por15 over it. I'd rather have it undercoated. Or use por15 now. I'll ask for the proper under coating in another thread.