Stupid Wheel Well Sponge Padding

While checking to see how much debris was caught behind the plastic wheel well covers, I discovered that VW installed a large piece of foam that takes up most of that space. The foam was totally soaked.

You’d think they learned from putting similar foam in MK4 models and having to give free replacements for rusted fenders.

How do I remove this stuff to avoid rusting out?

Can you post some pictures of what you are looking at? On 2010 models, the space behind the plastic wheel well liner was free of any foam except for the block that was sitting on top of the wheel well arch, but that one could be removed with only a gentle tug, so I'm guessing that's not the foam you have in mind, right?

2010 Mk5 had rockers rust out and replaced by VW around 2016 and 110K, foam block or not be sure to use that VW corrosion warranty!

There’s no sign of any rust or corrosion. But I’d like to prevent it.

Mass. Wine Guy said:

There’s no sign of any rust or corrosion. But I’d like to prevent it.

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Prevention is a much smarter idea than dealing with a rusted-thru fender or worse, the rocker panel. If the foam is molded in place or glued, I would use whatever means necessary to remove it - brute force, spatula, solvent, brush with really stiff plastic bristles, etc, etc. Try pulling a piece of the foam out, and then try to find out if any of the common solvents, such as acetone, isopropyl alcohol, paint thinner, gasoline, eat it away. Be careful with any members of the alcohol group (methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, etc.), as they will dissolve the paint if concentrated enough. If you can identify something that eats the foam, remove as much of it as you can mechanically, and wash away whatever is left with the solvent. In any case, it is an imperative that you periodically remove the wheel well liners and clean out the accumulated crap thoroughly. After I found out about this issue, I did it annually on my old Jetta when I still owned it.

Definitely will follow that advice. My ‘03 Jetta wagon is rusting on one rocker panel and I’m hoping to patch it with POR 15, body repair tape and short strand fiberglass filler.

routine cleaning behind the liner will also do wonders.

I'm not quite sure how you can clean water out of a sponge - just ripped them out of my 15 GSW. The foam at the 12 o clock position probably wouldn't have caused a problem, however the foam behind the liner in the wheel well is huge on the MK7. On the driver side the bottom of the foam was already absorbing moisture - it rung out like a sponge. Cleaning would help, but I'm certain if not removed this would have caused corrosion similar to the MK4 12o clock on the fender issue.

cleaning the debris, pine needles and leaves and road grime will show up after you remove that pad.

I took the wheel liner out when I was messing around with the ABS (see the "WDYDTYM7T" thread). Here's the soft almost fleecy thing on the back of the wheel liner:


As mentioned above, that doesn't feel like an issue. This, though - I'm not thrilled with this (after being parked for about six days...no rain for the last four).

I pulled it out a bit here.


And then, after squeezing a bunch of water out already, was able to squeeze even more.



Now, with all of that said, I do have to remark that the sound deadening in this car is really quite good (there's less road noise that comes through to the cabin than my wife's car, which is a MQB Audi A3 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), and I have to think that those sponge blobs do a lot to help with that.

740GLE said:

routine cleaning behind the liner will also do wonders.

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fase2000TDI said:

I'm not quite sure how you can clean water out of a sponge - just ripped them out of my 15 GSW.

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What 740GLE was probably hinting at is that earlier models, such as the 2010 I used to own, didn't have that huge sponge behind the plastic liner. There was just empty space there, which filled quite rapidly with all sorts of debris and organic matter. The images attached to the previous message are quite revealing - again, no such thing existed in earlier models except for the foam block at the 12 o'clock position. And I agree completely, just rip it out, or else you will be dealing with rusted fenders and rockers. Here is a link with images that show what the accumulated crap looked like on those older models without the sponge: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=115274