What's this gooey black coating in wheel wells?
 

Ok I do feel dumb asking this but I'm not 100% sure on this so I'll just ask...

On the inside of the wheel wells, there is this black gooey sticky, oily substance all inside there. Not much -- just a thin coating. Like tar all over the inside of the fenders. Mainly behind the tires on the metal part of the wheel well - not so much on the plastic part. If get it on you, it's hard to clean off.

So my question is -- is this just some oily road gunk that can be cleaned off or is it some sort of protective undercarriage coating that was put in there to protect the fender wells from rusting out?

I've never seen this before on any car I owned so I'm not sure why it's there or how it got there (it was there when I bought the car). I just wanted to know if that's the way it's supposed to be before I go and powerspray it all out.

It's kind of odd because it's not all over the suspension or control arms from what I saw.

Edit: I've never seen a new evo's wheel wells so I don't know what it's supposed to look like.

It's part of the car...don't mess with it.
 

Yeah, I had the same question and I know that it's not dirt or mud that needs to be washed off. I picked up my car from a collision center very recently and the worker told me that it was for safety just in case if you were raising the car and if it fell on your foot accidentally. You wouldn't get hurt, or hurt as much I guess. That's what the guy told me. Even if the guy was mistaken, I still know that the black tar coating comes natural with the car. I wouldn't mess with if I were you. It doesn't need to be cleaned or anything....And it's true that it's hard to get off if it gets on you...I've touched it just for the heck of it. :D

Bingo.