Ugly Rear Wheel Arches.

[Liam2]

My Citigo is Silver Leaf in colour. The wheel arches at the rear are not lined and are painted in the same Silver Leaf colour. This means that all the unwanted detail, within the rear wheel arches in particular, is very visible. I'm wondering if there is a proprietary appropriate paint on black finish that I could apply that would alleviate the issue, and without any drawbacks. Would Skoda paint warranty be affected?

[vRSsunroof]

talking about inside the arch?

Best getting it undersealed, most if not all underseals are black and it will protect the paint from water, chips and prolong the life of the mental.

sorry to say this, have you tried asking your dealer about the warranty? they will know......

[MickA]

Mines the same colour Liam, not that it matters but I think there is already underseal under that paint finish. It's also on the outer sills in the form of stonechip finish then finished in body colour.

I did think about doing the same and getting it undersealed but I'll just get my jet wash under there at regular intervals and see how it holds up against the elements.

Mick

[Liam2]

talking about inside the arch?

Best getting it undersealed, most if not all underseals are black and it will protect the paint from water, chips and prolong the life of the mental.

sorry to say this, have you tried asking your dealer about the warranty? they will know......

Thanks. Yes I had a word with the dealer today and mentioned the warranty. He is to make some enquiries and get back to me, but I thought it no harm to widen the scope of the query. Plenty very knowledgeable people on here and some into diy.

[Liam2]

Mines the same colour Liam, not that it matters but I think there is already underseal under that paint finish. It's also on the outer sills in the form of stonechip finish then finished in body colour.

I did think about doing the same and getting it undersealed but I'll just get my jet wash under there at regular intervals and see how it holds up against the elements.

Mick

I suppose more underseal shouldn't do any harm Mick. I did feel that stone chip finish under the sills myself while cleaning the car. It's just that my wife initially mentioned the visibility of the insides of the rear arches and I keep looking at it. Today the sun was shining in there as I came back to the car and it looked particularly obvious and unsightly. While in the garage I checked out a black Citigo in the showroom and inside the arches was finished in black and that masked what is bothering me.

[lemonvrs]

Do you not think youre being just a little anal? I mean, its only a rear inner arch not the Mona Lisa!!!!

[silver1011]

A good winter will soon cover the silver bits.

[Liam2]

Do you not think youre being just a little anal? I mean, its only a rear inner arch not the Mona Lisa!!!!

No I think it cheapens the look of the car because the exposed bits look like they should not see the light of day.

[Crista]

You could always put curtains up.

[Feebet]

No I think it cheapens the look of the car because the exposed bits look like the should not see the light of day.

One of the reasons why it is an affordable car - like the one electric window switch on the drivers door, no strings on the parcel shelf, no boot light...............I could go on !!

[oldstan]

My two penn'th... Liam finds the colour catches his eye and doesn't like it and, given the nature of forums, is welcome to say so and invite suggestions how to fix it. Provided the warranty remains OK then those big spray cans of black underseal would do the job and would only take an hour or so and cost a few pounds. I've used them for a thousand different jobs and rate the stuff highly.

I don't happen to find the coloured arches an attractive feature and would probably feel the same if I had a light colour. My Yeti wheelarches are black by design (fortunate, as you can see a vast amount of the wheelarch on a Yeti)...and my little i10 is dark grey and so not a problem....but I do happen to keep my arches clean with a pressure washer and by hosing the wheelarches out at every wash and after returning from every wet journey so they wouldn't get dirty over time as most others would.

As an aside I also don't happen to like the bare paint on the doors and in the boot and would prefer to pay £15 (or whatever) more to have them covered and don't happen to think the Up / Citigo to be SO very cheap...a well specced one is well in to the £10 thousand pound bracket and I think the lack of paint is more about trying to convince buyers that the car is good value because they haven't spent money on unnecessary expenses like painted door and boot trim areas.

I do happen to like many aspects of the Up/Citigo but of course it''s not perfect (obviously) and would guess over time they'll improve upon it as they always do every time a model is updated/ revised/facelifted. I suppose manufacturers have to leave off certain features at launch - just so they can add them at the next model year.

Edited 8 December, 2012 by oldstan

[MickA]

One of the reasons why it is an affordable car - like the one electric window switch on the drivers door, no strings on the parcel shelf, no boot light...............I could go on !!

And wheel arch liners missing in this case.

Mick

[Liam2]

As has been said I can appreciate that some things have been omitted in the design of the car, which by the way I love to bits, but what is so wrong to say that the one I find least acceptable in our Silver Leaf car is the appearance of the unlined Silver Leaf rear wheel arches, and to look for advice and suggestions about changing it to black, which is generally the preferred colour.

Some owners change their wheels/colour, some add stripes, some wash their cars every weekend, some change their bulb colours, some comment about seat or dash colours, and yet more are interested in steering wheels and gear levers. Nothing wrong with any of that. I wish to consider changing the inner wheel arch colour to black as it is my opinion that it would improve our car's appearance and sought advice about it. It is a bit disappointing when a few posters choose to respond with derisory comments and have nothing helpful to contribute.

[oldstan]

As has been said I can appreciate that some things have been omitted in the design of the car, which by the way I love to bits, but what is so wrong to say that the one I find least acceptable in our Silver Leaf car is the appearance of the unlined Silver Leaf rear wheel arches, and to look for advice and suggestions about changing it to black, which is generally the preferred colour.

Some owners change their wheels/colour, some add stripes, some wash their cars every weekend, some change their bulb colours, some comment about seat or dash colours, and yet more are interested in steering wheels and gear levers. Nothing wrong with any of that. I wish to consider changing the inner wheel arch colour to black as it is my opinion that it would improve our car's appearance and sought advice about it. It is a bit disappointing when a few posters choose to respond with derisory comments and have nothing helpful to contribute.

Tend to agree with you, Liam. Although, looking back, it was really just the one post that stands out from the rest. As it happens I just checked the i10 and the wheelarches do have plastic liners on part of the arch and black sealant on the rest........and the i10 IS a cheap car...I paid £8500 on the road for it (the auto version) with metallic. I don't particularly like the car....quite the opposite....and am not singing it's praises... but it does have plastic trim on the doors and boot and separate window switches and a boot light - but no strings on the parcel shelf.

[Liam2]

Thanks Oldstan. We paid something around €13,800 (about £11,000) for our car here. However, I was not suggesting at all that I did not get value, only that I didn't like the result of the cost choice in the rear wheel arches in our colour car. I was merely looking for some practical advice on how to go about changing it to our liking, as you said. Instead I received SOME unworthy comments and 'what did I expect anyway comments', as I was to accept that it was a cheap car. Rude, off topic or irrelevant to the original post, and not in some cases in the spirit of the forum. Anyway 'nuff said on the topic and rant over

[MickA]

Don't take it to heart Liam, some replies can be a little discouraging but yes it would have been nice to have had liners and a finish to the underside of the arches.

Having said this though I think it looks ok as is and it is well protected with underseal under the paint. No harm in giving it a spray over with some Black Dinitrol, easy enough job.

Mick

[Liam2]

Thanks for the tip about Dinitrol Mick. I found some data on it and will read up on it later.

[estorilblue]

It's a brand new car, let it get a little dirty and it won't be so obvious!

[Maverick vRS]

Lower it, won't see inside the arches then, or take off wheels' degrease and spray satin black. Sorted.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[CortinaGT]

Actually as mine have got a little dirtier they are not so apparent. The Elegance 75PS is also lowered as standard, So the gap between tyre and arch is less.

I sound a note of caution, Liam2. Definitely get it in writing that applying another coating over the manufacturers sealing and painting will not have a detrimental effect on your warranty. Years ago a relative changed the oil and filter on his Citroen at an intermediate mileage between the manufacturers first service. The dealer noticed the filter was a Fram version and not Citroen and from then on they stated he had nullified the terms of his warranty. He was so upset he asked me to contact Jeremy Clarkson! Anyway, studying the T&C's I noted the dealer was correct. The relative never forgave me for not contacting Clarkson!!

[Liam2]

Didn't know the Elegance 75PS was lowered. Why so? There does seem to be quite a lot of space above and around the top of the tyres on our Elegance 60. The tyres are 185/55 R15. Would that be relevant?

I have asked the dealer to look into suitable treatment and also the warranty issue. I hadn't planned to ask him to put it in writing though. I kinda felt that since it was my query that it would be a bit cheeky.

As you emphasise it though I guess I should mention it. If the reaction was bad I should consider scrapping the idea. The other thing that just cropped into my mind now is the VW purchase agreement. Can't recall, without checking if there was anything in there about mods.

[CortinaGT]

The Greentech versions are 15mm lower with an overall height of 1,463mm, whereas the other models are 1,478mm. This lowering is all part of the aerodynamic improvements claimed by Skoda to improve economy. Obviously this should also help somewhat to improve the cornering ability by lowering the centre of gravity (assuming the spring and damper rates remain the same - they may even be slightly stiffer to stop the car 'bottoming out').

The Greentech wheel/tyre combination is 14" rims fitted with 175 x 65 profile tyres. The S and SE models have 165 x 70 profile tyres and your car, from your postings, has the optional 15" rims fitted with 188 x 55 profile tyres.

[Crista]

They also claim in the sales literature that the lowering of ride height is to reduce wind resistance. Back to the start of the topic I did notice my arches when I first picked the car up and did think - shame they couldn't afford to put wheel arch liners in which would not only look better but would be quieter too particularly in wet weather etc. And on that subject for the sake of a bit of insulation on the engine compartment back wall, the whirrings and clankings of the gearbox might not be so audible. I would gladly have paid another couple of hundred for some wheel arch liners and a bit of sound insulation. Whoops - back on topic - now my wheel arches are dirty they look better and with winter steel wheels and wheel trims the arches are darker than with the alloy wheels which seemed to let just a bit more light in.

[Liam2]

@ CortinaGT and Crista. Thanks for all that. I did a comparison of all three tyre/wheel options and the dimensions by which they fill the wheel arch are within a few millimeters of each other ( I got 3mm max difference), so the biggest difference is the Greentech spec difference of 15mm. What you say about the alloys letting more light through is a contributing factor too, which I had not considered. I'm not bothered at all about noises. The only one I have is a little low clatter at start, only when the engine is cold (release bearing?) It's gone in a mile. Proper rear wheel arch linings would have been very welcome though and failing that paint em all black.

Be interesting to see what the dealer says about sealer application in black and any implications. I'll report back.

[CortinaGT]

Liam2 - I was going to work out the rolling diameters for you last night, but I was rather tired (actually early hours today!) so I'm pleased you sorted that out anyway!

On the subject of Skoda sealer and underseal, there is a most interesting and probably not much viewed 'You Tube' video by Skoda showing this done by the factory robots, albeit on the Octavia production line. Roll forward to 5.30 for the sealing - I actually found it quite eerie to watch these robots until they complete as they seem almost human when they start sharing out the different sections! :peek:

Edited 10 December, 2012 by CortinaGT