Hi All,

I am in need of some expert eyes to help me track down a missing component from the rear, driver's side of my 2006 Evo IX.

My car was sadly rear-ended by a distracted driver and repaired by one of the few Mitsubishi dealers still in existence. Unfortunately, it appears there is a missing component meant to support the driver's side, leading edge of my rear bumper cover. I have been through two different dealers, neither of whom can find this component. Please see a description of the missing part below. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

- Missing part should be located at the rear of the driver's side, rear wheel well; the bumper is currently loose because this piece is missing and the wheel well liner clips are sloppy as the missing piece is intended to be sandwiched to form a joint between the wheel well liner, bumper, and support beam:



- This is what I think is the same style of part shown on the passenger's side of the vehicle:



- This is where the missing part should be located; from previous reviews with the dealer, it appears this stamped metal piece may be part of a larger assembly (possible connected to the plastic wheel liner) rather than a standalone part but no one can source any assembly level including this component:

 

I had to remove mine due to running a modestly aggressive wheel / tire setup. I made this simple piece from some standard alum stock at any home center. Maybe you can make your own & attach the splash guard to it?

 

Eventually I will have to go that route but would really like to get the stock piece if at all possible... you don't happen to have the original do you?!

 

Giving this a bump; any pictures of this part on a stock vehicle would also be very helpful!

 

Hey. I can help a bit, I had this same question after a body shop repaired my rear bumper. They replaced the rear LH splash shield, and when I inspected the whole job closely, I noticed that there was no bumper to body support in the part they replaced like there was on the RH side. I thought they had replaced the splash shield with some knock-off part. So I went and got a genuine Mitsubishi part, MR954177, which is the same part on every Evo 7-9 in every market as far as I can tell; it was never superseded.

Here is the back side of that genuine part, LH rear splash shield:
\
No support!

I also got the matching right side splash shield:


Has the support!

So, what I can conclude is that Mitsubishi only ever built the bumper-body support into the RH splash shield. The genuine parts do not have the support on the LH side.

I think if you want the support on the LH side, you're going to have to do something like what MinusPrevious suggested, where you build your own bracket. Apparently, the plastic splash shield alone is good enough to keep the bumper from flappin in the breeze... but only on the LH side...

 

Thank you very much for that datapoint!

Since there is "slop" in the push pin connections between the LH splash shield and bumper cover and the corner is overtly limp versus the RH side, I have to image this is a result either of service part number management error or some effort to commonize to a single part number without the support element, apparently at the expense of bumper support.

I would still love to hear from, or ideally get pictures from, an Evo owner with an unmolested example that can show how the car left the factory. If there is no support on an original car, then I can rest soundly knowing that the bumper slop, as strange as it is, was how the wizards at Mitsubishi intended!

 

There is no metal support on the left side mud guard on my stock evo 9...but the bumper is pretty rigid seemingly due to the corrugated shape of the guard itself. Maybe the aftermarket versions are flimsier than the OEM?

 

I think you just busted this case wide open! Looks like the issue is that the dealer used a push pin clip instead of a screw and metal receiver. That is probably why yours feels relatively rigid and mine is sloppy. That photo is a huge help!