TBarney
'17 CX-5 AWD GT Prem. Original owner of 91 Miata.
- :
- Atlanta metro
Had the CX-5 up on my lift (heh) the other day doing an oil change, and looking around while I was under there, I noticed some leaves peeking out under the trim just behind the front wheels. (No comments on the tires, please, they're getting replaced soon, and yes, it does look like the toe is out.)
I'm garage -stored and hadn't been out in the rain recently, so things were dry, but there was a nice little handful of leaves stuck in there. Gently prying down the plastic trim allowed me to rake them out of there so they wouldn't allow moisture to sit against the sheet metal.
But being the genius that I am, I thought I'd try to remove the little trim from the outside, just to see if I missed anything. There is one push-in trim panel fastener inside the wheel well, and then the rest is held on by clips. Which I discovered after removing the fastener and then pulling too hard to try to get it loose! The POP I heard wasn't clips releasing, it was plastic breaking! Doh!
Those horizontal things inside those circles are the broken half of the posts that attach the outer part to the inner part. Here's what it should look like from the back side:
And here's what I did to it, with a close up of how those posts are plastic-welded to the inner piece:
That piece of trim is part number KB7W-51-W80B, it's only $7, and it is on national back-order. Naturally. Luckily, with the help of some CA glue and gorilla tape (the gooey stuff like Flex Tape,) I was able to rejoin the two pieces so that they clipped back in place on my fender. Hopefully it will hold on for a month or two and the part will be available. Good as new? For now...
Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd get that part off without it breaking. I was only able to release the clips after I broke it because I could slide a screwdriver into those rectangular holes and press down on the clips. Maybe you're supposed to take the entire fender trim off, and then remove this little piece?
At any rate, trying to remove it to get to the leaves was overkill. There wasn't any more hiding behind there than I'd been able to get out from gently pulling down on the trim. So, check your fenders! And don't man-handle stuff!
I'm garage -stored and hadn't been out in the rain recently, so things were dry, but there was a nice little handful of leaves stuck in there. Gently prying down the plastic trim allowed me to rake them out of there so they wouldn't allow moisture to sit against the sheet metal.
But being the genius that I am, I thought I'd try to remove the little trim from the outside, just to see if I missed anything. There is one push-in trim panel fastener inside the wheel well, and then the rest is held on by clips. Which I discovered after removing the fastener and then pulling too hard to try to get it loose! The POP I heard wasn't clips releasing, it was plastic breaking! Doh!
Those horizontal things inside those circles are the broken half of the posts that attach the outer part to the inner part. Here's what it should look like from the back side:
And here's what I did to it, with a close up of how those posts are plastic-welded to the inner piece:
That piece of trim is part number KB7W-51-W80B, it's only $7, and it is on national back-order. Naturally. Luckily, with the help of some CA glue and gorilla tape (the gooey stuff like Flex Tape,) I was able to rejoin the two pieces so that they clipped back in place on my fender. Hopefully it will hold on for a month or two and the part will be available. Good as new? For now...
Honestly, I'm not sure how you'd get that part off without it breaking. I was only able to release the clips after I broke it because I could slide a screwdriver into those rectangular holes and press down on the clips. Maybe you're supposed to take the entire fender trim off, and then remove this little piece?
At any rate, trying to remove it to get to the leaves was overkill. There wasn't any more hiding behind there than I'd been able to get out from gently pulling down on the trim. So, check your fenders! And don't man-handle stuff!