Wheel Arch Maintenance

[f00glee]

In the next few days I'm going to be attacking my wheel arches to give them a good clean out and to check for any first signs of rust.  With 10 months left on the 12yr corrosion warranty for me, I figure it a good time to give my arches the best chances of staying rust free into the future.

Priority is the fronts; arch liners off and a good clean and modification to the foam pad at the top of the arch to prevent rubbing is the plan. Anyone on here done this before? Is it good idea to give the surfaces behind the liners a coat of waxoyl or similar as a preventative measure? Or maybe just a coat of standard wax/sealant?

Is it worth doing the same on the rears? The rear arches don't appear (from reading on the rust issue topics) to suffer from the same corrosion issues, but I figure I may as well take a look while the car is lifted. Not even sure what to expect to see in the rears with wheel off; I'm purely assuming ill find a similar plastic liner arrangement.

Any tips before starting would be appreciated 

[Prewy]

Sounds a good idea mate, give the rears a good check as well mines bubbling on tea offside. Been rejected once due to the old edge and fold excuse currently in the hands of my case manager from VW UK. 2007 year for me.

[Prewy]

The offside!

[pudding]

Yeah get under there and make sure it's all spotless, then absolutely cake everything with rust prevention fluid.

Plenty of options.  VW sell their own stuff, Wurth do some really good stuff, and Dinitrol is super stuff, which www.rust.co.uk sell.

[4ndy]

remove the foam Dont forget sills at the bottom of A pillar,always worth a check for rust

[willni]

Lol everyone's doing this lately, I'm using waxoyl. But might also gonna put rubberised spray coat over everything in the immediate arch that gets hit from road debris.

[pudding]

The best rubbery stuff is UPOL Greystripe, which Halfords sell.  It's the same brush-on gloopy stuff you'll see on the wings where they bolt to the A frame.

[chimp400]

I did the front on mine a few weeks ago, there was a sh*t load of wet dirt down in the corner so well worth doing. I used a bilt hamber aerosol product for the rust proofing and removed the sponge completely.
http://www.bilthamber.com/corrosion-protection-and-rust-treatments/dynax-ub

[f00glee]

Thanks for the replies all. I was happy to find not too much crap and no signs of rust whatsoever. A useful exercise for piece of mine nevertheless!

[horsemeat]

Thanks for posting this! Had a peek today while rotating tyres, nice 3 - 4 inch build up of crud behind both front arches, glad it's gone. Will be spraying something behind there next time, not a job for a wet day though!

[pudding]

Look for stone chips on the arch lip too.  Found a hefty one on mine this weekend which was starting to rust (new wing replaced under warranty 2 years ago, pretty schitt really)....so I ground that bad boy back and sealed it in ASAP!