I want to check the state of the arches front and rear. Is this fairly straight forward, and will I need to replace the clips afterwards or reuse them?
Sorry if this is a simple question. I did do a quick search.
TIA, Matt
It’s not difficult if you are careful popping out the centre of the clips on the front liners.The rear liners are more awkward as the front hex self tapper often spins around and is rusted into the plastic grommet in the rear sill closing section. The plastic flange nut style retainers are on 6mm steel studs protruding from the inner arch. Worth removing the front indicator repeaters and cleaning/checking the aperture for signs of corrosion.
Simple enough if you take time and think it through. It’s a worthwhile job for a morning to clean what’s behind it and check for corrosion. Rears are most important, particularly the fibre liner as rust appears behind this at the front of the rear wheel arch. Also good to get the plastic engine undertray off and give a good clean. It’s messy but worth it.
IIRC I had to cut the front ones to get them off. Fitted back together easily enough tho as just a cut because of brake pipe or summat.
Good thing re the front indicators - ours has a big rust spot there.
Sanded back, treated with Aquarust and then painted by hand - it’s an almost 13 year old car NOT an ornament BUT glory knows why they tend to rust around the indicators. Poor quality control I suspect
Thanks all for your helpful replies. Much appreciated
Matt
Aquarust??
oops. Aquasteel.
I wasn’t trying to pull you up on it, I hadn’t heard of either.
I did Google Aquarust and got Aquasteel, so all good and now I know what it is.
I have a dampish garage and my steel tools tend to get rusty, so what I need is a treatment for bare metal really rather than a base for painting.
So far I have been using Fertan.
Might I better off with the Aquasteel??
Jeremy
And if you need to replace any broken wheel arch rivets/clips these below are what you need, price shown delivered per pack of 10.
I’ve just had one break on me and I’ve a couple of loose ones, for the pack price versus a single clip from our favourite MX-5 parts place it’s a no brainer and they fit perfectly.
https://www.vehicleclips.co.uk/plastic-push-fit-rivet-trim-clips-mazda-bc1d56145/
I am also trying to remove the liners on the rear and have the spinning hex self tapper problem. Whats the best way to remove them if they keep spinning?
Twist and pull type of action.
Never had a problem really, had mine off twice for underbody treatment.
I’ll try that, didn’t want to force anything and cause damage.
If you are talking about the front metal self tapper its best to ease the liner over the screw head to get it off and then prise out the plastic grommet complete with seized screw so you can deal with it off the car. When refitting the screw use a stainless “penny washer” to cover the enlarged hole in the arch liner. I bought new plastic grommets and screws from mazda but in the end tapped the plastic with a 6mm thread so I could use a stainless m6 buttonhead along with penny washer.
I am happy with AquaSteel, you like Fertan, others suggest Por15.
As long as rust is defeated then that is good.
I have used the drink coke to get rust off old bolts and rusty metal for fun - it does work a bit 
Thanks for advice, managed to remove liners and all A1 behind.
Hi. Removed my liners (NC 2008). Refitted the two large plastic liners - but unsure where the two smaller ones go… Please help - looked everywhere for a picture. Thanks in advance.
