I opened up the faux spare tire cover today for the first time. There is a piece of 1/4 inch plywood glued to inside of cover. Does the have a purpose? Seems to just add weight. I want to remove it. Anyone else encounter this issue? Thanks,. Bart
Mine was coming loose like yours, I reglued it with 3M5200 FC it keeps everything rigid on ours. We have a spare behind it on ours.
Jon
It's a stiffener. That cover is flexy enough as it is, but without the plywood it would be downright floppy. Remove the board, and the cover will be much more likely to crack due to flexing. Many of us have seen that happen. If it can be pulled away as shown in your first photo, I recommend gluing it back to the cover using 3M 5200 Fast Cure or a similar adhesive, as Jon suggested.
On our old 99 MB, I had a similar problem. I re-glued the plywood and then put some large hooks in the wood to hold our sewer hose.