Changing my all-seasons to winter tires, and
noticed that both these “shields” are broken and need replacing.

They are located at the front of the rear wheel wells. They appear to be held in place by a plastic push style clip. Any advice on how to safely remove those would also be welcome. Also, any advice or recommendation on aftermarket “shields” if the OEM are $$.

My car is a 2022 ES 350 F-Sport with approx 60K kms.


Thanks in advance for your help!



Front of the drivers side wheel well, the plastic shield (cracked)

Front of the passenger side wheel well, the plastic shield (broke off)

 

I couldn't find anything in the parts list maybe it was a dealer installed thing. Hopefully someone else knows.

...wait this thing?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/334433471800

If so there seems to be two of them

PROTECTOR, ROCKER PANEL MOULDING, NO.1 75861-33080
PROTECTOR, ROCKER PANEL MOULDING, NO.2 75862-33090

There are aftermarket formed to fit mudlfaps on Ebay would do a much better job than that little deflector.

 

Yeah it's the stone defector, looks like they've done their job on your ES LOL, but I'd check nearby area to see if anything else is damaged, especially the passenger side?

https://parts.belllexusnorthscottsda...586106220.html
https://parts.belllexusnorthscottsda...586206230.html

 

If you look a the front edge of the front wheel wells you'll see the same type devices installed there.

In the TSB L-SB-0034-20, 2021 ES 250, ES 300h, ES 350 Pre-Delivery Service (PDS) (see page 7, Front Wheel Opening Extension Pad Installation), "Left Front Wheel Opening Extension Pad" (and Right) is the terminology used for the devices installed on the front wheel openings.

I think LeX2K has correctly identified the rear devices as PROTECTOR, ROCKER PANEL MOULDING. The lexusguide.net Lexus ES (XZ10) Service Manual's Trim - Rocker Panel Moulding - Components illustration shows three fasteners are used to attach it to the vehicle. Upon inspection of my ES, the outside edge fastener is some sort of push type clip, the inside upward pointing fastener looks to be the same type of hex/cross screw head self taping screw used for installing the front wheel opening extension pads, and the forward pointing fastener is pretty difficult to see but it looks like some sort of square looking clip of some type. (The protector's rear inside has a forward angled extension so that third fastener attaches the protector to the wheel well molding. Unless you use a light and mirror (or lift up the vehicle), that third fastener attachment point isn't visible.)

The purpose of those devices is to alter the airflow aerodynamics of the wheels. Sometime ago I ran across an academic paper reporting the results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of a vehicle model with and without devices like those installed on the front of all the wheel openings. IIRC, the drag coefficient of the modeled vehicle with the wheel opening modification was reduced by 0.03 over the drag coefficient of the vehicle model without the wheel opening modification.

Added: While this isn't the paper I recall reading some time ago and doesn't include rear wheel extensions/deflectors/spoilers, this master's thesis, Aerodynamics Around Wheels and Wheel- houses (pdf), includes drag coefficient analysis for the front wheel deflector design case. See page 10 for the front wheel deflector design methodology description and starting on page 18 the modeling results for the front wheel deflector design variations.

 

Thx for the replies. I will do some more investigating this week.