I noticed alot of dsmers remove there front splash shields the ones behind the fenders what are the good and bads about doin that? I heard to keep the engine bay cooler also the alternator? I was thinking if u remove the splash shield on the drivers side behind the fender your pulley,belt, and a lil of your alternator are being exposed wouldnt it be bad to drive your car in the rain and snow cause it can damage the belt and pulley? Would it be ok to drive without the splash shields say on only dry days or its still not good?

Ive never had mine, and Ive had no ill effects in the rain or snow. Only problem Ive found is the belts tend to wear quicker

My car was dropped quite a bit so I rubbed, and it destroyed the plastic so i just took it out. No problems so far with it

1badpurple said:

Ive never had mine, and Ive had no ill effects in the rain or snow. Only problem Ive found is the belts tend to wear quicker

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But what about rocks and stuff on the ground that can spin off your tires and fly into your pulley and damage it? Also water im sure will wear the belt down but water also will rust out your pulley. Now in winter ice on the ground can fly on the belt or in the pulley and give u a bad day.

My car didn't have them when I got it, I haven't noticed any difference after putting them on besides making it harder to get to things by reaching around the tire.

It seems u wont have a problem if your car is lowered since u bring the frame down and when stuff splashes it just flys other places but for a car with stock suspension i think it has more of a chance ruining the belt and pulley.

My current DSM didn't have them when I bought it, but if it did, I would of removed them like my last 2 DSMs.I've never had any issues with the elements and I'm from here in Colorado. I always guessed removing them would help keep the front brakes a little cooler and help with air flow to the stock intercooler (as my last one had). They were pretty torn up on my first DSM anyway so that's what made me decide to always remove them, and it being a pain to work around.

I must be the odd one here, I always go to a junkyard and get the fender liner if I buy a DSM and its missing, I just dont understand why people "forget" to put them back in.
I think it makes the car look bad without them, plus there is a function for them.

Yeah it does look weird if you have bright colored car, i wish i had mine but all the bolts broke off so i cant put em back in. I also hate looking at the passenger side and i see the trans.

I like the look of them and i have a habit of painting the wheel wells black every year to keep a clean look.

I guess I am the only one to have a bad experience then. My dsm did not have any of the splash shields on the front driver side. The moisture/salt caused corrosion all way the way to the back side of the fuse box in the drivers cab. Lost a lot of my electronics and couldn't figure it out for the longest time, like half would work, most importantly lost the obd2 port (this was before I had link and was trying to pass inspection). Brought it to a shop and ended up being a $800 bill to solder in a whole new fuse box and replace some wiring.

I don't see why you wouldn't want them. I think it looked trashy without them.

I always put them in. Keeps it cleaner and I do agree it looks better with them in as well. They might be a pain to work around in some cases, but if you think about it, everything can be a pain to work around in certain cases. It's just something you deal with just like everything else.

When i got my car the drivers one was still in, and the passenger one had been taken out because it allowed more air to go into the SMIC. Seen a little tiny bit of surface rust on top of strut tower, so i went to give it a quick scuff with a sanding pad and a hardball sized chunk fell through. So i had to get it professionally welded up and repainted. The drivers side...solid as a rock.

I think it looks like shit if u dont put it in. and maybe thats not why my shock tower was rotten, but why take it out? theres no benefit..only saving 1lb if u take both out, adn ti looks like shit.

Why would you want them off anyways? They are easy to remove when you wanna work on somethin and they keep just about everything out. I know some guys cut out a section of the passenger side liner and replace it with mesh to get some slight performance increase but not completely remove them.

Still have mine in. I try to keep everything (interior and exterior parts) that came with the car from the factory in. The thought of debris hitting my belts and pullies would make me worry..

I really hate that i had to put a big garbage bag behind the front drivers side wheel in order to wash the wheel well and wheel so water wont go on the pulley and belt i do plan on buying the shield and putting it back on but for now i only bring my car out on the dry winter road days so snow,ice,and salt wont ruin my day. Because the harmonic balancer was def turning rusty i had to remove all the corrosion on it by the way is it easy to replace the harmonic balancer?

Yes, it's pretty easy. All you really need to do is remove the alternator/water pump belt and remove the harmonic balancer. It'd help if you had someone else with you to put the car in 5th gear and step on the brakes so that the crankshaft doesn't turn while loosening/tightening the 4 pulley bolts.

I personally did it myself though by using another belt and wrapping it around my hand and pulley to hold the crankshaft steady. They're only torqued to like 12 ft/lbs(?)

Mine were slashed to hell for my supra side mount. Then when I put a non factory bumper on i cut the drivers side all to hell. When I got my factor bumper back on, i installed new ones. Really cleaned up the wheel well looks much better. Recently a bolt came out on the drivers side. The wheel "trimmed" the thing up for me a little. Sucks...but it is what it is.

10 years without it. I'd say you dont have to have it. I worry about the rocks blasting the ABS box in the drivers side wheel well. But she's held up.

What are the chances of a rock beeing flung up into you belts? You probably have a better chance of hitting the lotto. If it worries you that much buy them and install 'em. I've driven my car in florida ( rains almost every day in summer) for 5 years with no ill effects

There is no real reason to remove them...I don't think not having those shields is really going to cool anything very much. The difference in temperature you would see is so minimal that it's negligible when stacked up against the cons of removing them. The only thing it would help cool is the side mount intercooler, and even then it probably wouldn't make much of a difference unless you were doing WOT pulls off and on for a long time without stopping or something. The only time I would consider removing them on a street car is if you lived in a place where you didn't get snow and had really clean roads, which isn't the midwest.

I'm missing the drivers side splash shield that covers the belts and the passengers side splash shield. All the other inner fender parts are still there though. I've drove my car over 35,000 miles like that with no ill effects so far. It makes things easier to work on that's for sure. The reason I don't have mine on anymore is because all the bolts broke off when I was pulling the engine/transmission and I haven't had time to drill them out and re-tap yet. I would have put them back on if it wasn't for that though.

I just installed a new drivers side splash shield for the belts as well as the fender liner for the driver side wheel. I got both pieces and the mounting accessories for less than 50 bucks at the local mitu dealer. I think it looks a lot cleaner