Removing / trimming front arch foam supports. Beginners guide

I just had to get this job done before the winter arrives with all the talk of rust breaking through the front arches due to the foam supports soaking up salt water and rubbing on the inside.

I think this job is in the sooner or later group of things to do on the car.

This is a easy start guide and can be done with anyone with a jack and stands.

Firstly jack up the front of the car and place on axle stands. Remove the wheel.

You need to remove these plastic fasteners. Take a small screw driver and carefully prise the centre pin upwards until you can grab it with a pair of pliers. As you pull the pin out some of the clips will come all the way out. Go careful as they look like they can snap easy.





Once the plastic clips are removed you can start on the screws. They are a small torx head. Start on the front inside of the arch.



At the top of the bumper there are 2 screws close together. Make sure you remove both.



Now you can work under the front bumper and remove the lower screws.



There are 3 more which join to the under tray and one being at the back of the tray.



Now starting at the underside (front) carefully pull the arch liner from beneath the under tray. Then moving up the arch carefully pull away from the wing. It should come out easy once you have the front removed from the tray. If it becomes tight you have missed a clip.



Get your head in and located the foam support. On my car it was simply pushed in and not secured by anything.

VW recommend trimming the lower section as shown.



Personally I simply removed both of mine to make sure there was no chance that they could hold water.



If you look at the foam you should be able to see any staining from rust. Mine were clear, Phew.

That's about it. Simply take your time and place the arch liner back. I found placing a clip in the rear to hold it up and then fit the front under the under tray and work back.

Whilst I had mine off I was (one again) surprised how much faith is put into the plastic arch liners to stop any salt water reaching the inner wing as there is no rust protection at all.



I gave the inside of mine a good coat of waxhoyl to add some protection.

Chino_UK said:

Thanks for the write up, may tackle this myself at weekend.

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Cheers.

Should only take 30 mins per side. Mine was a bit longer as I messed around with wax etc.

cupra.al said:

nice guide needs to be made a sticky in the faq.
i didnt expect the foam to be quite so large im hoping to do mine friday may get some waxhoyl or i have some black hammerite doing nothing i may use instead.

looks clean behind your plastic though were the pics take after a clean or is that as they were?

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No that's what you find behind the plastic. It does make you wonder for the cost of a couple of quid per car they could have given it a coat of wax on the production line.

mcd90 said:

Obviously the foam pads are there for a reason so whats the long term effects of taking this out?
What is their actual purpose in the first place, anyone know?

If it helps though im all for getting this done before winter settles in!

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I thought they would be quite solid for supporting the wing but when you get them out they are very soft and would not offer any real support.

I guess they are some kind of baffle to reduce engine noise ?

I think we can safely say that they WILL however rot out your front wing

cupra.al said:

is that dirt or rust where the wing attaches to the arch lining?

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Just dirt. You get a little bit of a build up in that area.

cupra.al said:

i completed mine today was a really easy job made so much quicker using a cordless grill on the screws as there was so many of them.
mine didnt have the plastic fasteners like yours does.

i can see how the sponges get wet in there and i dont think trimming them will help in the slightest either the arch lining actually does its job very well.
the problem is obvious when the lining is out as when you look towards the headlight inside the wing you can see the water comes in from round the edge of the headlight obviously whilst the car is in motion in rain so by trimming the sponge you wont stop that being the problem.

i also think the inner arches although are not painted there primed which imo is enough to protect them from the any rain but only with the sponge not in place as a precaution i painted them with hammerite anyway.

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Yeah I felt the same way about leaving the sponge in so removed both. Trouble is that it appears a very porous type of foam which could hold splash water and condensation.

Bloody stupid idea from VAG.