GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have noticed after driving at higher speeds when there is snow on the roads, the rear end of my '09 GT quickly becomes completely covered with snow. It worries me because the taillights get completely covered and are not as noticeable as I would like. I tried spraying WD 40 on them tonight and it did absolutely nothing. I realize this is just due to the design of the rear end of the car, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on anything I can try to perhaps help keep at least some of the snow off the taillights?*EDIT* Here are a couple pictures. This was after it had been sitting for a while so most of the snow blew off the taillights. It was much worse when I first stopped after driving.Thanks in advance.

Besides stopping every now and then to clear them off, make a little wing to put inbetween the light assembly and the body to get some ait movement across the surface of the light thereby preventing buildup... But from what's running through my mind that would look ugly!How about retrofitting a headlight bulb to go in there, complete with red reflector. That would warm the case up and melt away the snow.

this was discussed this summer but instead of snow the item covering the back end was dust/dirt. the only thing that was mentioned was installing mudflaps.

I drove to Macomb Michigan recently and back and by the end of it the rear of the Vibe was covered in road grime. Thank god for the rear wiper but I do carry window cleaner and a roll of shop towels in the car in the winter. Other than that there is not a whole lot that can be done. My old S10 Blazer had a spoiler on the back that pushed the air over the roof down to the rear bumper. This did a good job keeping the window relitively clean. I have not seen anything for the Vibe.Mike

Move to Florida.

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver »Besides stopping every now and then to clear them off, make a little wing to put inbetween the light assembly and the body to get some ait movement across the surface of the light thereby preventing buildup... But from what's running through my mind that would look ugly!How about retrofitting a headlight bulb to go in there, complete with red reflector. That would warm the case up and melt away the snow.Yeah, I guess I will just have to stop every now and again to clear the taillights and license plate off. The thing that sucks is it gets covered really fast. My drive to work is 8 miles one way on country roads. By the time I get to work (about 15 minutes) everything's completely covered. I guess I just won't be able to take any long trips when there's snow on the roads .Quote, originally posted by tribalman »this was discussed this summer but instead of snow the item covering the back end was dust/dirt. the only thing that was mentioned was installing mudflaps.Yeah, I was thinking mudflaps would probably help, but I can't stand the look of them, so once again I guess I will be stopping to clear things off quite a bit .Quote, originally posted by chevelle_lover »I drove to Macomb Michigan recently and back and by the end of it the rear of the Vibe was covered in road grime. Thank god for the rear wiper but I do carry window cleaner and a roll of shop towels in the car in the winter. Other than that there is not a whole lot that can be done. My old S10 Blazer had a spoiler on the back that pushed the air over the roof down to the rear bumper. This did a good job keeping the window relitively clean. I have not seen anything for the Vibe.Yeah, thank God for the rear wiper or I wouldn't have even been able to see out the rear window.Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Move to Florida. I was waiting for someone to say this! I would love nothing more than to be in Cocoa Beach right now .

Looks exactly like what I deal with when driving down the gravel roads to visit my family. I ignore it, of course as it easily washes off.

My main concern is that someone won't be paying close enough attention and won't see the taillights since they wouldn't be as obvious covered in snow and will end up rear ending me or something. I am only slightly concerned about it. Nothing major.

I had this problem too on my '09 but after I installed the mud flaps it got better. The front flaps also kept a lot of muck off the side of the car. They weren't fun to install and you have to drill into the body of the car, but so far it's worth it.

Quote, originally posted by goochsmooch »I had this problem too on my '09 but after I installed the mud flaps it got better. The front flaps also kept a lot of muck off the side of the car. They weren't fun to install and you have to drill into the body of the car, but so far it's worth it.Issue at hand is there are no specific splash guards for the GT model.

Snow/dirt build-up is an issue on most cars. Adding an extra bulb is a pretty good idea. Extra heat in this case would be your friend. Might try taking the interior tail light access covers off to let more cabin heat into that area?I'm still trying to get a brighter CHMSL (third brake light) to help make my Vibe a little easier to make out when the brakes go on. It's not too bad at night... but in the bright sunshine, there's not much there.In the mean time, keep those tail lights clean as you can and wipe the glass in front of the third brake light, too.Grizz there are quite a few mud flaps out there that could be adapted. Shouldn't be too tough to get one to fit nicely.

You could try something like these: http://www.prfprod.com/ Some people on another forum I am part of for smart fortwo's have used them and report that they provide some benefit for keeping the back clean, but also for improved highway stability.

instead of WD40, would rainX work?I love the stuff on the windows... never tried it on the lights.

Don't drive fast when there is snow on the ground, problem solved.You have no lower diffuser like say an 05-08 Matrix XR does, it splits the wind under the car and keeps kickup down. Install some mudflaps or do some work under the body installing plates to keep airflow smooth and low where it belongs.

Thanks for all the ideas guys, but they're all way more work than I am willing to do. It's really not that big of a deal, I just thought someone would have a simple solution like spray something on them or something to that effect.As far as driving fast, everytime it's happened I've only been going about 30-35. If I go any slower I'll never get anywhere !I really don't drive too far when there's a lot of snow, so it's not that big of a deal.Thanks again everyone!

Would rejex or some kind of wax applied to them help any? The idea being that nothing will stick to them.

The taillights (and headlights) get waxed every time I wax the rest of the car and it hasn't helped any.Good thought though .

Could the rear spoiler be creating this issue?Aron

Heet in a can? Its suppose to prevent build up from reoccurring.. Maybe if it did build up, it would fall out if you hit a bump or something..?

Quote, originally posted by audiovibe »Could the rear spoiler be creating this issue?I am almost positive it is coming off the rear tires. I'm sure mudflaps would help a lot, but I refuse to put mudflaps on it so I'm just dealing with it .Quote, originally posted by 09vGT »Heet in a can? Its suppose to prevent build up from reoccurring.. Maybe if it did build up, it would fall out if you hit a bump or something..?I wouldn't feel comfortable putting something like that on the taillights. I wouldn't want to risk messing up the taillights somehow.

I sprayed it some on my old car.. Didn't see anything happen.. Though it only snows here for like a week out of the whole year. I think I have a can laying around in the closet.. Ill take a look tomorrow and see if it warns against putting it on plastic..

Why don't you spend 2 bucks in coin op car wash. and leave it there for an hour.Or you can park in the mall's underground parking for 3 hours or more so you can let all the ice in your car melt away?

That is not the problem. This occurs while driving and even if I stop and wipe all the snow off the taillights, once I start driving again they become covered all over again.My Vibe is parked in the garage whenever I am home.

Quote, originally posted by cq358 »Or you can park in the mall's underground parking for 3 hours or more so you can let all the ice in your car melt away?Here in the Metro Detroit area, there is no parking underground for the mall.

I have two possibilies for the snow on the back. First, you were driving with a tail wind. Second possibilty is that a vacuum is being created in the rear (negitive air pressure) against the body, as the car moves forward. NASCAR drivers drive close or (tail gate) so as to be pulled by the car in front. I also wonder if the GT extra large spoiler fin in the back has some effect by creating a GREATER vacuum in the rear. PS: I hate the look of that spoiler, and the reason I did not get a GT model. PS2: I do not believe the snow came from the rear wheels, because from your pictures, the snow looks very clean.

get rally armor mud flaps...they are straight rally!http://www.rallyarmor.com/stor...fc1b7

Snow cohesion on the back of a vehicle is extremely common and since it is made up of 1000's of tiny snow and frost particles, unlike dust on a dirt road, it cannot be fixed via spoiler or mudflap. It is simply a situation where the vehicle has a warmer ambient temperature than the snow and aerodynamics causing a swirling vortex at the back of the car. As a result the snow particles begin to stick to each other and the general physical make up of snow and frost causes allows more and more snow to stick. Though a spoiler diminishes the effects of the vortex, it never quite goes away. While driving up north this weekend I noticed the back of every vehicle was completely snow covered, even the sporty Audi TT with its fastback shape and moving rear spoiler had a snow covered rear end. The one thing I did notice, which I think is a negative side effect, were the newer cars with LED Tail lamps were complete snow covered and you could not see the brake lights at all. Whereas the conventional light bulb created enough heat to see a small "hole" in the snow for the tail lights.

yeah thats the issue I had with my ms3's tail lights, led's...so they wouldnt melt snow/ice. had to scrape those babies off all the time.

Just made a run up the I-81 yesterday from N.E Pa to Canada through lake effect snow. No issues with snow, frost or Ice sticking to the tail lights or liftgate of the car. Only non factory equipment is a set of molded universal mud guards trimmed to shape to fit the car, a set of 2" urethane barge boards running along the rear frame rails from just behind the rear wheels to the rear bumper and the addition of a OE rear spoiler. At worse there was only a light film of frost. The only thing that I may do differently is that I have the car "waxed" with a commercial avation surface treatment for high speed aircraft on the paint and plastic lenses that may have anti-icing properties.

Quote, originally posted by dragon64 »Just made a run up the I-81 yesterday from N.E Pa to Canada through lake effect snow. No issues with snow, frost or Ice sticking to the tail lights or liftgate of the car. Only non factory equipment is a set of molded universal mud guards trimmed to shape to fit the car, a set of 2" urethane barge boards running along the rear frame rails from just behind the rear wheels to the rear bumper and the addition of a OE rear spoiler. At worse there was only a light film of frost. The only thing that I may do differently is that I have the car "waxed" with a commercial avation surface treatment for high speed aircraft on the paint and plastic lenses that may have anti-icing properties. Waxing the car with aviation surface treatment is the only thing you may do differently? How many of us have fashioned 2" barge boards that run along the rear frame rails from just behind the rear wheels to the rear bumper. That could have some small additional effect. Looks like getting heat to those tail lamps would help a little, but not too much heat, because they are plastic and could melt. Snow build up on the rear of a car that covers the tail lamps has been a problem since cars could move more than 20 miles an hour over snowy roads.Mercedes even tried to shape their tail ligths to partially eliminate this problem, but during that period, I saw a lot of Mercedes with the same snow build up that everyone else had on their tail lights. How about those little wipers that cars like Volvo used on their head lights or the high pressure wash so popular now on several high performance cars. Another thing would be to keep the car cold enough so that the snow wouldn't stick... but that would mean using the A/C instead of heat in the winter. Not a good idea. But temperatures do have quite a bit to do with the accretion of snow on a surface. A super smooth and clean surface that is as cold as snow when it's in the mid 20s F or colder (even better when super cold) would help keep the snow from sticking. About those barge boards, what gave you the idea to install those?