Styling Fitting Fiat rear Mudflaps to 500

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Styling Fitting Fiat rear Mudflaps to 500

Hi all, brand new to the forum, but I thought I would let people know of my own experience of fitting rear mudflaps to the 500, which I fitted during the morning on the day of this post.

My wife and I have only owned our 1.2 POP for two weeks, but I immediately bought a set of genuine rear mud flaps from a dealer on a well known auction site. Our 500 is black, so I have no issues regarding paint/flap colour! I found the instructions supplied personally confusing. Aimed at the 'expert fitter' Mmm! I promptly discarded said instructions, looked at the job properly and sussed it in about 2 minutes.

From getting all my bits and pieces together, socket set, screwdriver, electric drill (yes, an electric or cordless drill is required), the job took me an hour from start to finish and I still managed a couple of cups of coffee! Trust me on this, if you are going to do the job on your drive, you DO need to take the back wheels off, otherwise (in my opinion) it will just be a complete pain in the butt and a total fiddle and therefore unlikely you will achieve a good professional looking fit. Safety first - level ground, chock wheels, put jack in the right place and check/recheck wheel nuts on completion of job! Oh, and any other safety related stuff before, during and after which I may have not mentioned! If in doubt, pay someone to do the job!

It really is only a case of taking out one screw in the plastic under arch protector, un-clipping a plastic retainer and then slotting the flap between the wheel arch protector the unclipped plastic retainer (which is reclipped after slotting in the mudflap) and bottom faring. The top part of the mudflap is secured using the first screw taken out. I then drilled a 0.6mm hole through the pre-drilled hole in the flap and through the plastic faring that the bottom of the flap sits against. I used a 0.3mm drill to create a pilot hole before putting the 0.6mm drill through. Once drilled, I pushed the supplied bolt through the holes ensuring the supplied grip washers were on. TIP: Don't tighten the bottom bolt too tight, otherwise it WILL distort the bottom fit of the flap and make it look a poor fit. You will also need to peel away the tape covering the very sticky glue patch near the tops of both flaps to help present a neat, flush fit to the rear bumper assembly

I am not by any means an expert, but if you have the few tools necessary and the time, it is a very easy job. Not only that, you'll save yourself a few quid! I would like to add, this is the first time I have ever fitted mudflaps to any car I have owned.

Personally, I don't give a monkey's if the car doesn't stay cleaner at the back, if fitting the mudflaps helps other motorists from getting loads of extra spray in the rain and helping them to see my rear lights in the drizzle, then great. I actually think that the new flaps look great and to me, they definitely don't look like elephants ears! For anyone else considering fitting them, it ain't hard, just apply yourself and be proud of your achievement!
 
Personally, I don't give a monkey's if the car doesn't stay cleaner at the back, if fitting the mudflaps helps other motorists from getting loads of extra spray in the rain and helping them to see my rear lights in the drizzle, then great. I actually think that the new flaps look great and to me, they definitely don't look like elephants ears! For anyone else considering fitting them, it ain't hard, just apply yourself and be proud of your achievement!

I doubt it stops that much spray coming up tbh. The reality of it is that the hatchback shape means it'll pull spray up.
 
Brilliant thread thanks. We have ordered mudflaps from the dealer with our 500 so they will come fitted up. Strangethat you can only get rears though so will be putting front Ford Ka ones on myself. I take it I need the ones for the latest model of Ka?

Many thanks
 
Yes, at the risk of going slightly off topic from rear mudflaps to the front, it is rather strange that Fiat only make flaps for the back. Like you (and others) I have been plying the idea of getting the KA flaps for the front, but reading other posts, it seems there may be fixing issues and of course Fiat's rears are rubber and the KA's are not?? I see on the famous auction site that some dealers are pushing the KA front flaps as being a straight fit for the 500, but I'm not sure I want to part with 20 odd quid if they don't look right.

Concerning the spray issue for the rears, I wholeheartedly agree with the point made about the shape of the rear drawing up spray, but actually the more I look out of the window at my handiwork, the more I find the flaps aesthetically pleasing - so who cares! Sorry, I hope that doesn't sound rude - it's not meant too!
 
Yes, at the risk of going slightly off topic from rear mudflaps to the front, it is rather strange that Fiat only make flaps for the back. Like you (and others) I have been plying the idea of getting the KA flaps for the front, but reading other posts, it seems there may be fixing issues and of course Fiat's rears are rubber and the KA's are not?? I see on the famous auction site that some dealers are pushing the KA front flaps as being a straight fit for the 500, but I'm not sure I want to part with 20 odd quid if they don't look right.

Concerning the spray issue for the rears, I wholeheartedly agree with the point made about the shape of the rear drawing up spray, but actually the more I look out of the window at my handiwork, the more I find the flaps aesthetically pleasing - so who cares! Sorry, I hope that doesn't sound rude - it's not meant too!

Not rude at all and I definitely don't think you need to apologise, it's your car and what I think is irrelevant if you like it.
 
The back does get covered in crap as i found on the recent 2k euro trip.

Maxi are you saying the design of the back-end sucks the spray up and mudflaps wont help ?
 
Brilliant thread thanks. We have ordered mudflaps from the dealer with our 500 so they will come fitted up. Strangethat you can only get rears though so will be putting front Ford Ka ones on myself. I take it I need the ones for the latest model of Ka?

Many thanks

will black flaps work on red? send a pic in, I have same colour 500.
 
I do concur with Maxi on some hatchbacks and spray. However, I personally don't see that just because they may not necessarily have the absolute effect of stopping all of the muck, that they should be discounted completely. It is after all, a personal choice whether to fit them or not. Black with red should work, I'm sure with a little looking around on the web you will find a picture of a red 500 with them on.
 
My only experience of mudflaps is on my first new car in 1990, an Austin Metro. I mainly wanted them for looks and to keep the car cleaner. They did nothing to keep my car cleaner, and the front flaps caught on nearly every speed bump I went over (and there weren't as many humps around then) resulting in them quickly splitting and needing to be removed. I have never even considered mud flaps since. What do they look like? - it's difficult to see from the picture on the fiat website.
 
They can look good but IMHO on modern cars they don't look good.

They looked the business on my 504 back in Australia
ztiu00.jpg



Mine were even more awesome because they had the 1965 emblem below on them and were original fit. Strangely enough they didn't help keep the front of the car clean that day.
peugeot-logos.jpg
 
I do concur with Maxi on some hatchbacks and spray. However, I personally don't see that just because they may not necessarily have the absolute effect of stopping all of the muck, that they should be discounted completely. It is after all, a personal choice whether to fit them or not. Black with red should work, I'm sure with a little looking around on the web you will find a picture of a red 500 with them on.

of course it's always people's choice

but IMHO they don't look all that good

back20.JPG
 
That picture just made my mind up, I will not be going for them.

btw : great pic of 504... "Honey I am home and I have bought the all the dirt from the road with me" :D
 
Yup, have to agree with you, in my own worthless humble opinion, on this particular shade of blue, they don't look particularly good. Like I said, my own 500 is black and the flaps just look part of the car like they probably should have been there in the first place.
 
mudflaps are a functional item not a fashion accessory:confused:

Sometimes they do look good though. I liked them on my 504 until our dog chewed one of them off :rolleyes: The pug got off lightly though, he chewed through the brake lines on my mums Saab :D
 
Aha! we've had a shed load of rain where we live in the last 24 hours. I had a look at the backside of the mudflaps on our 500 and they are absolutely covered in you know what, the usual road filth, leaves even some horse @*it - and the back of the car is surprisingly cleaner than it probably would have been without them, especially under the rear faring. Another thing too, the flaps don't seem to have affected the mpg through drag! (I read a post about flaps messing up aerodynamics)
 
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