Splash guard

[Drawweight]

A generic part but it happened on next doors Audi so I thought I’d put it on here.

He came to my door and said there was a scraping sound on his front wheel.

I looked and the semi circular guard had come loose, one side bolt hole had broken and the other bolt had enlarged and just come off the head.

So I basically took the wheel off and junked the loose bit.

What’s the purpose of this bit? Keep the wheel clean, protect the caliper or a bit of both? Any problems in not having one?