mud flaps?

[FatherTime]

I always wondered why hatchbacks had rear windshield wipers. Thought it was gimmicky. Now I know. The entire rear end of my Vibe gets completely trashed (and dinged up) when the roads are muckey. How effective are mud flaps in reducing the crap storm that pelts the rear of the car?

[joatmon]

I don't know if mud flaps would help significantly, the wheels are still going to throw stuff and the airflow pocket that develops behind the hatchback at speed lets it settle on the back. I don't think its a Vibe specific thing.

I remember early on here people were hoping that a rear spoiler, one that lived at the top of the hatch and would direct air straight down the back of the hatch and might help with the problem, but I don't remember if anyone ever actually said that it did help.

I did learn it was a mistake to apply rainX to the back window, caused even the slightest mist to bead up making the back window useless.

Its also a good idea to use the key to lock and unlock the hatch, just to exercise the lock. Some folks who very seldom used the key for years have found road spray and other gunk had clogged the hatch lock

[FatherTime]

From the reading I've done so far, it doesn't sound like either a spoiler or flaps do all that much to help.

[Bookworm]

I've had four hatchbacks and a S10 Blazer. All had the 'crap on the back window' problem.

81' Ford Escort Wagon, '98 Kia Sportage, and two Vibes.

It's endemic to the way the air flow works, which is part of why the 2009+ Vibes don't have glass that opens. They got excessively concerned about people having the back glass open and sucking carbon monoxide from the exhaust. (That's why you open the front and back windows slightly, ding-dongs. Sometimes engineers _really_ don't think in normal terms)

Spoilers at the top wouldn't help too much, because the laminar air flow would be above the top of the car at that point; that's what draws the air from the bottom of the car up - the slight vacuum at the top back of the car. Even a standard car shows this problem against the back of the trunk.

Never had issues with using Rain-X on my rear window.

[zbyers]

Yeah, the dirty rear end (gigitty) affects anything with a rear hatch. SUV, hatchback car, etc. As others said, it's unavoidable.

[Mark]

My 05 has mud flaps and my 08 doesn't, I don't really see any difference as far as the hatch is concerned.