The carpet liners hold moisture. I wouldn't want them. I have the plastic ones on my 8.5 it's a 74 plate. My old mk5 wings rusted and so did my old mk7 ones. The 8.5 still has the sponges in the centre of the wings that cause rust. I removed mine and have sprayed Bilt Hamber UC on the inner wings and wing lips. I am going to remove all arch liners front and back after each winter to clean out and top up with Bilt Hamber UC.
Exactly what I was thinking.
I soaked my carpet rears in fabsil when new and they repel water better.
With most cars being bought on PCP and handed back at the end of the (3 year) contract term, I dare say very few first owners will have any concerns of front wing corrosion. It’ll probably be the third (or later) owners that have to deal with the problem.
I may be wrong (it certainly won’t be the first time!
) but weren’t there also cases of the edge of the plastic front wheel arch liners causing front wing corrosion on the mk5 Golf and other VW’s from the same era? I seem to remember reading that flexing / small movements of the edge of the plastic liner where it fitted against the flange of the wheel arch used to rub against the reverse side of the wing, removing the factory applied zinc coating over time and allowing corrosion to set in.
So it seems that both textile and plastic wheel arch liners might cause issues………
