What I found when changing cabin air filters

[Sounbwoy]

While changing out the cabin air filters (engine compartment) today, I saw a bunch of leaves and debris, so I grabbed the shop vac and cleaned up.
While doing the compartment on the DRIVER'S side, these sheets of what I can only assume to be sound deadening or insulation came up along with the leaves, however, they were not wrapped around anything, they were just laying there at the bottom of the compartment and a couple of the sheets were slightly damp. Along with those sheets, was the little rubber cover(?) shown in the pics.
I put the sheets back in in the compartment and made sure they weren't interfering with anything.. only thing over there is the brake reservoir and various wiring looms.
Anyone know what they are and their function?
It sucks not having a garage..lol

[Clifton]

Odd - doesn’t seem normal. Good on you for cleaning out the debris.

They look like PIG mats techs put down to catch spills

PIG Mat

[shimmy23]

i too had a bunch of leaves down there. those definitely look like spill mats as previously mentioned.

[Sounbwoy]

Originally Posted by Clifton

Odd - doesn’t seem normal. Good on you for cleaning out the debris.

They look like PIG mats techs put down to catch spills

PIG Mat

Wow... Interesting! Thanks for the info! Nothing of any significance came back when we checked the car history when we bought it (not that really covers EVERYTHING), but I'll see what else I can dig up.

[Clifton]

Theory - Somewhere along the line a tech was performing brake flush (reservoir lives on driver's side) and used the pig mat to catch any top-off/fills. Pig mat fell into the cavity while tech was doing other things. Or perhaps during the fill the tech sneezed resulting in spilling brake fluid. He then threw a bunch of pig mats down to soak it up ultimately, forgetting to remove them.

If you haven't already, I'd remove it from the cavity. It will only soak up water, pollen and dirt eventually causing unwanted damage to the area.

[EDWYER]

This is on my spring to do list.