Splash guards - removed

[bigdog]

In the nearly one year that I've had 'The LittleCar' I have ruined two sets of front splash guards. One guard I wrecked by being stupid, doing a three point turn off of pavement onto dirt and I replaced that one. I then crunched the replaced drivers side guard pulling into a driveway that had a steep hump in it. The passenger side got ruined on a speed bump that was more like a speed pipe, very tall and steep. I've also scraped the guards quite often. I generally attack speed bumps and driveways at an angle and drive over
as slowly as I can - doing the 'California Crawl - and I still managed to drag the splash guards. My main concern was that one of these times not only will the guard get dragged but that the quarter panel will get damaged as well.

So, after the last episode of dragging both front guards and having the bottom attachement points torn, I pulled them off. Since the back set didn't get dragged, caught or bent I left those on.

I love the look of the guards and they worked fairly well in keeping crud off the side of the car but, the fronts need to be made of a more flexible material, not so stiff like the molded ones that are available to us now.

If someone from Saturn reads this, a more flexible splash guard solution would be most welcome!

Oh, and Saturn, please, please sell the splash guards as individual replacement parts. Those of you that might need/want to replace a splash guard in the future be aware that they are only sold in complete sets (last time I ordered replacements anyway)!

[MidniteBlues]

I guess I have been fortunate. Have had the guards on now for months and no problems, (so far). Odd that you are having so many problems. We have speed humps here, but they are what they call gradual humps, although they are high, I have never hit bottom. Now if I took those humps fast, I'm sure that the whole car would bottom out and Wacke those guards. The trick besides what you stated above about the angle trick is to go very slow over obstacles. I agree with that they should sell them individually to replace damaged ones.

[bigdog]

Originally Posted by MidniteBlues

I guess I have been fortunate. Have had the guards on now for months and no problems, (so far). Odd that you are having so many problems. We have speed humps here, but they are what they call gradual humps, although they are high, I have never hit bottom. Now if I took those humps fast, I'm sure that the whole car would bottom out and Wacke those guards. The trick besides what you stated above about the angle trick is to go very slow over obstacles. I agree with that they should sell them individually to replace damaged ones.

I guess that is my biggest complaint. I go really slow over speed bumps and driveways. I mean R-E-A-L slow and I was still scraping. Scraping the air dam I can understand but I was thinking (and here is where I generally get into trouble) that the guard was too far up and close to the wheel to get caught. Wrong. I'll shoot some pics tonight and post to show the damage. At least the quarter panels are intact.