Paint concerns with plastic fender flares

[Rebel_driver]

Anyone concerned here about the plastic fender flares chaffing into the paint over time?

A friend had a 2015 Ram, no fender flares, installed Mopar mud flaps with 3M film lining to help protect paint. Over time the vibration caused the plastic from the flaps to wear through the 3M and chaff the paint. Got to the point where it was bare metal in certain areas and starting to rust.

The FCA paint quality isn’t great to begin with and there is no 3M film inbetween the plastic flares and paint to protect it. Am I the only one concerned?

 

[STR]

There are a few threads on this Mopar splash guards, and some have reported the same. Nonetheless, I have them installed.

With regards to the fender flares, I’d say that they are certainly going to etch the paint over time using the same logic. Actually, worse than the previous designed as they’re now held on with fasteners/clips, and not 3M tape.

I replaced the OEM flares on a Gen 4 w/wider flares and noticed some etching, but it wasn’t down to the metal as the 3M tape provided some surface to surface buffering, which the Gen 5 no longer has due to the clips.

 

[mikeru82]

I have zero concern about the mud flaps wearing through the paint, since they're attached to the fender flares. No metal = no rust. I am a little more concerned about the fender flares rubbing through, but it's not causing any loss of sleep. The only time I'd ever see it is if I ever remove the flares. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't keep my vehicles more than 3 years so it'll be someone else's problem down the road. I don't like the fact that they went with the holes/clips, but I understand it. There were a lot of people who had issues with the 4th gen fender flares pulling away from the truck. Would have been nice if they would have kept the 3m adhesive along with the new design to protect the paint more.