Factory mudflaps missing bolts causing excessive paint scratching

I purchased a 2016 1500 Express 4x4 in December. I've put 4500 miles on it so far with all the Christmas travel and always noticed a slight rattle coming from around the drivers side of the car. I noticed the inner fenders are poorly mounted compared to my old truck which allows them to flex while driving I was going to mention it at first service, but didn't have much hope for resolution. Then I washed my truck for the first time and noticed the factory mud flaps have started to scratch the paint already. I know this may happen eventually, but my old truck (2005 Nissan Frontier) had 180,000 miles and it's factory mud flaps had barely scratched the paint. I noticed that as the inner fender flexed it wiggled the mud flap. Then I found the source of the problem. The mud flap was missing a bolt. The bottom bolt behind the mud flap on both sides was completely missing. Went to the dealer and they replaced the bolt. Probably not perfect since the inner fender is allowed to move so much, but substantially improved. At the first service they are going to remove them and try to buff out or touch up the paint.

This is more an FYI for others since usually on an assembly line if one is messed up there may be many. These were factory installed not dealer installed without side steps.

Are there factory installed mud flaps? Or dealer installed option?

I thought it was a dealer installed option...

I have never seen factory installed flaps, I think they are Mopar flaps, dealer installed. I could be wrong.

yoda said:

I have never seen factory installed flaps, I think they are Mopar flaps, dealer installed. I could be wrong.

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I am 99% sure this is correct. So it was a Dealer **** up not Ram. Just saying.

The oem flaps are notorious for beating the beating the **** out paint. I had them on one truck abd paint was toast. Bought the husky obes for new truck and to date have zero marks or scratches

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Sometimes plastic and rubber expand and contract in strange ways. When it is cold outside my fender flares shrink and you can slightly see scratches on the side of the truck. Needles to say I'm married to them now.

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use some touch up paint and then reinstall with 3M double sided tape.

My mud flaps did the same thing. I noticed 3 days after taking delivery of my truck. Dealer fixed the paint, installed missing hardware. No issues since I've since removed them and put foam tape behind them just in case.

I'd guess that the bolts that are on the bottom are hard to get to with the factory side steps so they don't get put in.

It's under warranty. Take it back and make them fix it. Won't cost anything

I made sure when i installed my oem deluxe molded splash guards that all the bolts and screws were installed, even the extra ones you have to drill the fenders for. Yes the bottom ones are a bit of a pita to get lined up but it's doable.

Mine are on rock solid, very minimal flex. I think that's the key. If they are not secured properly, they can move/vibrate and wear the paint. Then again, i don't see any scenario where I'd ever take mine off, so it's not an issue for me.

Looks like ya'll are correct they were probably dealer installed. I could have sworn I checked this on the window sticker before, but they aren't even listed. In that case I bet you they leave off that screw when they install side steps with them because they don't fit well together. I wish they made the rebel side steps in a quad cab. When they were fixing it I was walking around and I was the only truck with just mud flaps. Most also had side steps very few had neither. I've been meaning to look underneath to make sure they weren't removed at some point.

They seem to work really good to keep mud off the truck when on a wet dirt road, but because the tires stick out past them road spray still covers the side of the car. Pretty much impossible to keep the truck clean. I don't ever see me taking them off.

Thanks

You couldn't pay me to have those ****** plastic ones on. I've got the Mopar Robber flaps. Twice the quality, look better, better coverage, and they won't scratch the paint.

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