fix/patch for broken wheel well liner?

[bluezero000]

Oh my 1996 Volvo 850 GLT... Just as I was about to have some rest, I noticed that the front driver-side wheel well liner is broken.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wang_wanj ... CBMuER3pOW
The bumper edge is hanging out a little bit which is caused by or causes the broken liner. I don't want water to get into the engine compartment from the crack (will it?), so does anyone know some quick fix for this?

I'd like to tighten the bumper edge, also. Somehow, the bumper on my car is different from what Haynes Repair Manual describes. I can't find bumper side mounting bolts. There is a one-piece plastic top around the bumper. Are the bolts under it?

Thanks a lot.

[Jot]

It looks like the fender is bent towards the tire. The plastic liner at that location prevents material from being thrown at the underside of the fender above. It is not open to the engine compartment that high up but might if was torn down near the A-frame behind the wheel. You might be able to lace in a patch with zip ties.

[matthew1]

Same thing happened with my 850. I think the series of events is this:

wheel hits liner on tight turns, rubbing
liner moves and pops off black plastic nuts that hold it to the wheel well
liner has little support for months or years, and experiences cracking
this pulls down on the bumper, one of the liners' only supports

I bought some replacement black nuts at the dealer; they were cheap.

This doesn't fix the gap, but solves the support issue.

[AJU]

The bumper cover is actually only mounted to the fender by one bolt through a flexible plastic bracket at about the center of the part of the bumper you can see from the side. The wheel well liner supports the rear of the bumper cover. You can make a small bracket with thin piece of metal that joins the top rivet hole in the bumper cover with the bottom rivet hole in the fender wheel well. This should prevent further tearing of the wheel well liner, but if you want to replace it, Erie-VoVo has them for about $20, but you need to pop-rivet it in.

[bluezero000]

Thanks for all the responses. The crack pattern shows that Jot is correct about the fender being slight bent. I didn't notice it when I bought the car. I'll try AJU's bracket solution as well as some fiberglass patch for the liner.