Splash guards

Is this an aftermarket mudflap, or the "spat", just ahead of the rear wheel?

Here's the spat bit:

 

loctite/

 

It's likely a nylon push-in piece the screw is screwing into, and it's worn due to the screw pulling out. Check what it is, pry it out and bring it along to parts dept, get replacement? For quick fix you could try some two part epoxy.

 

Locking nut on the reverse side? That'll definitely make it so it won't come out.

 

Ok, broke down and had a look. First off, this is a coarse thread screw, there's no nut on the back side. And unfortunately, it's not screwing into the more typical simple nylon push-in bushing, it's a clip of some sort incorporated into the plastic rocker panel. That's one item that's defeated me when I tried to remove it. It has a ton of different fasteners.

I think your best bet would be to just butter up the screw with 2-part epoxy, screw it in 'till it seats firmly, then let it sit for 24 hours. This will hopefully re-establish the threads in the plastic insert, and hold.

It's actually very hard to completely remove this spat from the car body: it's other fastener is in the wheel well, connecting to a little off-standing bracket. There's a steel nut and bolt at that point. We're by no means in the snow belt, still after 4.5 years when I looked at our it was piece of rusted &%##!. I replaced it with aftermarket nylon license plate nut/bolts I had.

Before:



(Note, we have a fiber wheel well liner, comes with 17" rims I think)

The bracket:



Reinstalled, with nylon nut/bolt combo. Note, the fiber liner was supposed to lap out-and-over the spat, I think. So got it right now:

 

Well, that sucks... I got the same stuff on our Prius too. So far they haven't fallen off. Got the 17" wheels also.

 

You could remove the bolt, drill a hole in it and insert a cotier pin in it once reinstalled.

 

^ Take a look at that location, back out the screw and have a look at it, look at that rocker panel: good luck with that.

 

@RBruce: I was doing a little fall cleaning, removed our rear wheel well spats in the process, and see there's in fact a simple metal clip with a threaded hole, for the screw that's on the underside of spat. This clip just pushes over the plastic rocker panel edge.