Perhaps like many of you, the original small pair of “mud flaps” at the front edge of my wheel wells had become damaged, and so I bought some new replacements.
Upon the removal of the broken bits, I discovered that each side of the car had another piece of “something” attached to one of the screws which holds these flaps. These were broken-off plastic shield or bracket tabs, attached to the innermost of the three (3) screws which hold the flaps to the car. They were located between the flap and the car body on both sides of the car; see circled screw in the first picture for the driver’s side location. These are –not- part of the mud flaps, but they are something separate. The second picture shows what is left of the left and the right bracket tab portions, again circled, along with one of the damaged mud flaps for reference. Each tab has a different missing part, so it is obvious that there had been “something” attached to the other end of these tabs which has been broken off.
Looking around this area of the car on a lift, I can see no evidence of the “other end” of these two broken brackets, nor can I see any clues as to what these may have been or for what purpose they might have served. Maybe some sort of a shield of some nature?
To add to the mystery, when I check my parts manual, there is nothing like this shown in the diagram, see third picture. But mine is a model year 2000, and my copy of the parts manual is dated 2004, so perhaps this was some sort of a deal which is unique to the earlier cars and was dropped from the later models?
Can anyone advise what this missing part might be?
Thanks - DM
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