DIY Inner Fender Replacement?

Everything in there has parts numbers. And generic fasteners maybe be more trouble/hassle than they're worth: ill fitting, just not working, poor quality.

There's a plastic "pan" right in the corner of the fender, and then the plastic wheel liner attaches to that with 3 bolts. In my experience you might as well treat those two plastic pieces as one, at least the used one. I tried removing one of those bolts once, and got a snapped off bolt head for my troubles. The bolt spec is atrocious, they might has well be pop rivets the bolt/nut assembly turns into a rust rivet in a few years, at least in our climate.

The plastic in that area, both the wheel well and pan pieces:



And the hopelessly rusted splice between the two:



Also, at the rear end of the wheel well plastic liner, there's one fastener that's pretty much impossible to remove without destroying. I'd count on just drilling it out and replacing.

There's another on the front side of the fender edge with a slot on it, needs to be turned 90 deg with screw driver before prying out. These are definitely not generic, you want to get the right ones.

Still, a lot of the plastic fasteners on the fender liner should be reusable. Just take your time prying them, and rinse all grit out before reinstalling.

 

Sorry. Just have to find a site with exploded views and info. Assess just what fasteners are missing first of course.

 

I just finished replacing my drivers side fender liner. Got my liner from Parts Geek.com and got 12 "splash retainers" from AutoZone. Their part number is 455400 and they worked perfectly. I did have to go to 3 AutoZones to get all 12. The part number is for a package of 3. I still need to order the Fender liner pad # 53852-47010 but I can drive it while waiting. Total cost so far $ 41.93 for the liner ($29.98 + $11.95 shipping) and $13.52 for retainers. Great considering Toyota wants $84.32 just for the liner.

 

Did you have any luck attaching 53852-47010? I broke the bolts attaching it (snapped the heads of both, then destroyed the opposite side of both bolts with a wrench trying to remove them, with the middle of the bolt still locked in place) ... I haven't been able to remove or find a way to buy a replacement of the metal splice you show in the picture above, and I'm not sure what that metal splice is called (name, part number...)

... oh, and I have a Gen2, but it looks very similar there, except my metal splice was straight ... until I got to "fixing" it, and now it's a bit mangled

 

What if we don't want to be bothered with trying to diy? Does it cost a lot to have this replaced at a garage?

 

That depends on your definition of "a lot." It's probably going to be a half hour times their hundred and some odd dollar billing rate. But they might charge you an hour. Not sure. It should not take very long. Our guys usually take about 20 minutes to do one counting time spent removing the wheel, getting the part, and any new fasteners needed, and then putting it all together. Pretty easy job with the right parts.

 

Just some comment: that sounds sim to 3rd gen. There's an arching plastic liner inside the wheel well, and a flat, horizontal piece ahead of it, closes off the void between wheel well and front fairing. The two are connected with a splice, 3 through bolts below and a metal bar with weld-nuts above.

You pretty much need to treat that as a permanent connection; it rusts up very fast, and yeah the bolt heads just snap off if you try to remove them (don't ask how I know...). My 2 cents: it would have been more appropriate for Toyota to use pop rivets for that splice. I believe the part number for shields in that zone encompasses both components, the bolts* and the splice.

What steel detailers would refer to as "shop bolts".