The MINI's shape seems to suck the dirt right onto the back of my car. I've never noticed any other car to do this. After washing my car the first part to need another cleaning is the back. After a good rain my car looks clean except for...the back. Has anybody come up with a solution, or tried anything to resolve this (mudflaps)? Thanks in advance.

 

i know how you feel, except i get it a little worse i think, i have a pepper white, and the back of my car really looks like it has pepper on it
maybe the mudflaps are the ticket?

 

Drive in reverse?

 

I think we all feel your pain on this one. It's like a vortex for all dirt to go. Just sucked right back there.
Doubt if any of the rear difusers being offered would work to a large enough degree to curb this. But I do remember seeing mudflaps being offered from somewhere, for the MINI. I personally don't feel like comprimising the look of the car by slapping on mudflaps, but I'm sure they'd work in a large way.
Cheers,

 

There are only a couple things you can do.

1) Leave the car in the garage.

2)Wash your car more often.

3)Drive it like you stole it and then wash it.

I've decided option 3 works the best. The dirt problem is a fact of life.

 

Mine is the same way but I have noticed this with all the cars I have owned especially the lowered ones because they cause a vacume from the rear being so low to the ground.

 

Since I only drive on dry days, I just do a quick CaliforniaDuster swipe
and it's clean again. :smile:

 

There is a reason why car manufacturers put the rear wiper on this type body style.

 

are you worried about grinding the dust into/through the paint. I know you're not pushing hard on the duster, but can you see any marks yet? We live on a dirt road so I'd love to find a good solution to this. We've noticed that after we wash the car & air dry, there's dirt mud trails coming out of the roof spoiler & from around the bottom of the boot lid.
WTH
Cris

 

If you have an air compressor you can blow the water out of all the cracks. I have noticed that even after sitting for a full day that the water will come out on my next drive.

 

Mini is a vacuum cleaner on steroid.

If everyone drives a Mini the city will not need the road cleaning crews.

BMW just need to come up with a collection bag so it is easiler to dispose of all that grits it picks up.

 

Thanks for all of the responses. I guess I'm not alone. Looks like I have to wait for all of this rain to stop before I can wash it. This is going to be hard to say...but...I think that I worry about the appearance a little too much-I need to just enjoy driving it (and that's not hard to do).

 

I don't think anybody here will be throwing stones on this one. But alas, there seems to be no cure for a dirty rear hatch....even mud flaps won't work.

For me, the key was to virtually re-arrange whatever car cleaning regimen I had to suit the unique peculiarities of my MINI. I watch the weather closely and I wash my MINI strategically to get the most bling-time possible.

I also dust...both gently and alot. I used to be more timid about dusting/QDing in public, but I'm WAY over that, although I find MINI-primping can be most discreetly done at gas stations or in a car wash bay, whether you're a paying customer or not....ya just tend to blend in a bit more.

 

A rear diffuser may help not create such a whirlwind onto the back of the car.

 

THREE FOR ME

Earl

 

There is only one way to keep the back clean and that is to remove the roof spoiler. A bunch of us went driving one day and the only car to stay clean in the rear was the UPTICk's Cooper, he does not have a rear spoiler, the Sport spoiler on the S picks us the most dirt

 

Funny story on the aero situation for me. The first time I washed my mini one nice fall afternoon i did what i usually do with any of my cars. After rinsing i take a quick run around the block to blow and shake most of the water off. As i headed down the street i looked in the rear view mirror and saw a beautiful collection of fall leafs plastered to the rear window. Had to go back and wash it all over again , lesson learned

 

A leaf blower works well also. If I am going to wax the car, I use a leaf blower to make sure there is no water lurking in the nooks and crannies.

 

I am posting this as perhaps a little more info on the mysteries of the mini aerodynamics not to try and convince anyone that these items are the solution. I have some additional aero pieces on the rear of my Mini and to be honest the dust problem is for the most part eliminated. This was not what we were going for but happened by accident. I really didn't notice until on one run with a number of minis someone mentioned it. We started checking the others and I cant give you parts per micron numbers but there was a noticeable difference. The rear wing and lower diffuser were done to provide more rear down force and a clear rear window was the bonus. I really noticed the differance after the lower diffuser was installed more so than with the wing which was put on first.

Randy
Team M7

www.m7tuning.com

 

I am not a detail freak, but I use polymer wax and I don't notice any
swirls on my paint.

 

This actually helps in the performanc area! If you terminate the back of a car suddenly, the turbulent vortex can actually push the car from the back. For an iterresting read on this, look at the developement of the Shelby Daytona Coupe. The early prototyped didn't go fast enought for the straights at some european track that Shelby wanted to kick Ferrari *** all over. His body guy had read an article by some german about vortexs and airflow and the like, and had them make a body that looked like the end and been cut off with a cleaver. They got the speed they needed.

But anytime you push a brick ( a mighty cute, and fun one) through air at high speeds, expect this to happen. Unless you roll down the windows, and open the hatch!

Matt

 

Yeah, the dirty boot is just the way the MINI is! With the all-black, you have to do a little daily maintenance. You'll get used to it...


Clover

 

my wife's Mercedes wagon does the same thing and its not lowered it's just all about the aero. And no it doesn't have a rear wing

 

I ordered a complete kit from Zaino, and it has poured rain every freakin' day since the damn thing arrived. So for those of you who live in Northern California - I APOLOGIZE! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!

I was driving home through my neighborhood yesterday - going about 25-30 mph - and I noticed in the rearview mirror these two huge rooster tails coming up from the back of the car! I would have loved to have had someone videotape this, or someone else drive the car so I could stand by the road and see it. These rooster tails must have been quite a bit higher than the car!

Mind you, I wasn't driving through puddles or standing water. It was just a wet road.

The problem must be that the rear wheels are right there at the corners of the car. Most cars have a couple of feet of bodywork behind the wheels to trap this stuff, but the MINI just throws it up into the air behind the car. And the vacuum effect caused by the chopped off rear end sucks a lot of it onto the body work.

Oh, well! If that's the price I have to pay for a teeny tiny car that looks like a clown car and goes like squirt, that's fine with me!

Just remember - every minute you spend washing your car is a minute of driving you've missed out on!

 

Kenchan when I used to go to car (Rod) shows there was alway's guy's there using those duster's so they must work. Just kinda freaks me out.....
MaxMini, that's a cool rear diffuser. Makes beaucoup sense too. Smoothing the air that's sucked along from under the car (I think) help move the air
being pulled from the rear of the car. Is that available or do you have a pattern available?? Oh wait, you're a vendor (!!) is that something you're making for sale?

Thanks,
Cris