Anyone fitted mudflaps to a 6C?

Chat about your 6R/6C model Polos here!
veteran
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Drives: TSI 90 Match Edition 1.2
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Re: Anyone fitted mudflaps to a 6C?

Post by veteran »

Thanks, folks, for all your inputs. Special thanks to SRGTD for supplying those links. I have, in fact, now sent an enquiry to vwmotorparts, including some pictures taken by me of the lower parts of the wheelarches and cills on my Polo. However, your various comments may now have changed my mind about fitting mudflaps.

Certainly, on previous cars of mine I've always fitted mudflaps - but not for any of the reasons you guys have annunciated. Primarily, my reason hitherto has been to keep rainwater and mud away from the ends of the cills at their front ends. The latter have generally not been fully closed entities (at that end) and, despite internal wax treatment, have been susceptible to corrosion. However, it's always been a double-edged sword, because usually fixing mudflaps to the wheelarches has involved putting further holes and screws into the metalwork, which themselves then have to be regularly inspected and treated against corrosion. Generally, I've been highly wary of the potential for rust to catch hold at the cill front ends. It can be a situation where you can become complacent and then suddenly one day you notice corrosion bubbling through that end of the cill from the inside. It's then too late to do much about it.

As for rear mudflaps, well, I'd say they tend to get fitted more to preserve the symmetry than anything else. If there's any practical advantage it's not to the driver's car but to vehicles travelling behind, as the rear ones stop a lot of the roadspray and stones from being thrown into the path of following vehicles. It could be argued that we'd all be better off if mudflaps were always factory-fitted on all vehicles by default, because it'd likely make motorway driving in wet weather that much safer. However, that debate needs to be left to another time.

Incidentally, if my own Polo is anything to go by, VW still leaves the front ends of the cills largely open; the cills are certainly not hermetically sealed. And the area just behind the front end of the cill is a bit of a mud-trap, it has to be said. The only thing that appears to keep the majority of water and mud from being thrown by the wheel at the cill end is the plastic wheelarch insert, but the interface between the two, namely at the outside edge, still remains a potential entry point.

All that said though, mudflaps no longer seem to make much of an improvement to this. Indeed, the wheelarch covers themselves provide the protection instead, right to the very edges of the wheelarch rims.

As has been pointed out, a fitted set of the kind now available can look a bit garish and 'out-of-place', especially if the car's body colour is bright. I agree that, going by those pictures, the aesthetics are degraded by their addition. So, seeing that has, alone, somewhat put me off. Incidentally, my guess is that the ones shown in those shots are the short ones. There'd be a risk I'd think, with the long ones, of catching them on servicing ramps, kerbs, and roadhumps.

So, once again, thanks folks for making this a worthwhile discussion and causing me a re-think. I'll now give 'em a miss.
cheba
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Drives: Polo R WRC 2014
Location: Sweden

Re: Anyone fitted mudflaps to a 6C?

Post by cheba »

Front flaps should be the same for 6R and 6C. Rear flaps are different for the 6C (I assume this is the "B" revision for 2014 and later).

Front flaps will not fit any model with a side skirt running all the way along the length of the sill (R-Line, BlueGT, BlueMotion, 6C GTI). Front flaps will however fit the 6R GTI since the side skirt doesn't run all the way to the front wheel arch.

I don't think the rear mudflaps will fit any car that doesn't have the standard bumper. Definitely not the R-line, Bluemotion or 6C GTI.

I recommend going for the short flaps. My car had the long front flaps fitted by VW when sold as new (mudflaps are standard equipment in my country so all cars get them installed during the delivery service after the car arrives in the country) but even at stock height, they would scrape often when driving slowly over curbs and uneven ground. When lowering the car, it was absolutely necessary to switch to the short ones (50mm shorter). It also looks better, since the long ones look ridiculously long.

They are installed with 6 screws per side I think. 3 of them uses existing holes (they share the screws for the wheel arch liners) and the rest of them are screwed through the plastic wheel arch liner. No drilling holes in metal necessary.

The flaps also included a metal clamp used to clamp the 2 plastic "ears" on the backside of the flap against the longitudinal beam on the underside of the body. Completely unnecessary in my opinion, so I left them out.
veteran
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Posts: 410
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:27 pm
Drives: TSI 90 Match Edition 1.2
Location: London, UK

Re: Anyone fitted mudflaps to a 6C?

Post by veteran »

Thanks cheba for all that additional info. That'll certainly help anyone else who's thinking of fitting mudflaps on a 6R or 6C.

Haven't understood what those 'ears' are all about, but since that's now academic for me, it doesn't matter.
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