So my wife was driving my jeep the other day and got stuck in traffic. She stopped in time, but the dairy truck behind her didn't. The only visible damage to the jeep was the rear bumper, but since then I've noticed a slight rattle coming from the back driver's side corner. I finally traced it down to the fender flare. When I nudged the flare, the rattle stopped. I then noticed that the flare had a little play at the bottom on the back edge (if I pull on the bottom corner, I can pull it away from the body a little). I went to the other side and it was the same.

Is that normal? Anybody with bushwacker pocket flares notice the same "flexibility" at the bottom of the back side of the rear flares? If anybody has these flares on their JK and could go give that bottom back section a little tug and let me know how much it moves, it would be awesome. I'm trying to figure this out without taking the flares off if possible as they didn't go on as easily as the instructions suggested....

 

I just ordered a set and happened to have perused the installation instructions. when installing the rear you are supposed to install the fender, then drill one final hole on the bottom where you described, remove the fender, install a screw down clip, re-install the fender and fasten it tightly all the way around. My bet is either, A: that step did not happen if you did not do the install on your own, or B: when you got hit, the screw there popped through the plastic allowing play and rattle. If it was B just add a black washer, rescrew and tighten. If it was A then you need to do that step.

Hopefully that's the issue anyway.

 

Thanks, Matt. I noticed the screw holes with no screws when I was checking it this morning. I thought that hole was there to accomodate 2011/2012's in case the wheel well liners were different. I think we quit reading the instructions after we put the front pair on so we didn't see the instructions to drill that last hole out. Good old RTFM issues!