Rear window / wiper
 

How necessary is the rear wiper? I was planning on removing it on my future Fit to make for a much cleaner appearance and for weight savings (mostly from the motor), but I would like to know opinions of how useful it is. Does the rear window really get that dirty? I've never used the one on my CRX, but the different shape of the hatches may have different affects. Thanks in advance for any input.

I will keep it. It is quite useful on rainy days and in high dust areas. How much weight you can save from the motor? 5lbs max?

I'm keeping it too. There had been too many rainy days in my civic that the defroster could not deal with.

It is very usefull. I would keep it.

You'll definitely need it in heavy rain.

From personal experience, a rear wiper is very useful on a hatchback.

However, the Fit rear window is almost completely upright; rain should roll off of it pretty easily even in heavy rain.

I find rear wipers most useful when parking outside overnight. If it was a cold night, the rear wiper can clear the moisture much faster than the rear defroster.

forgot about snow, they do stick back there you know?

I have used my back wiper in 3 different instances. While driving on the interstae doing 70-85mph, I noticed the window would visibly wet when it was raining of course. Slower conditions around town it came in handy as well. I liek to have a good rear view in the city streets made shiny by street lights when it is raining.

The rear window being mostly upright makes the rear wiper very necessary. At highway speeds the tail wind off the car forces rain and the road debris that goes with it onto the rear of the car.

I've only turned it on once since I've got the car and that was by accident.

In the rain, I don't feel it's necessary. As others have mentioned, the rear window is almost vertical.

Hey, if you're ok with it and don't feel it's necessary, then axe it. Make sure to find a good cap to seal the hole though, or you may run into corrosion/leaking issues if any water gets in.

The Aquapel stuff should be helping

The rear window wiper/washer is, IMO, very necessary on this car, as well as any hatch/van with a nearly vertical rear window and no trunk. The area directly behind the car is a low pressure zone that every little speck of dirt is trying to fill. Add a little rain, and you end up not being able to see anything. Trust me. My work car is a Toyota Land Cruiser without the rear wiper, and after a couple hours of rain and the wet roads, it was virtually opaque.

Removing unnecessary weight is admirable, but this is (again IMO) a necessary item if you live anywhere it rains/snows. Also, since the weight distribution of this car is already something like 62/38 f/r, removing weight from the front (if possible) would be better.

u got enough stickers back there?

You must be really desperate to loose weight if you are down to lossing the wiper motor! If you want to limit the weight the car carries why not go on a diet as well - and insist all your passengers do too. :) :)

In the limited time we have had our Jazz we have used the rear wiper often. The upright rear tailgate always gets dirty because of the turbulence off of the back of the car.

That's one of the reasons I wanted another hatchback. I had a back wiper on my '90 Civic and used it a lot. When I got my 2002 Civic 4-door I really missed it.

Thanks for the info and picture! You're one of the few people that didn't think I was nuts. That cap doesn't look bad, but I was planning on having the hole shaved since I'm an obsessive perfectionist. But yeah, I think it looks much nicer without it.

~5lbs may not seem like much, but there are plenty of areas for weight reduction and this is simply one of them. All of them combined will make a difference. It's my personal battle against the growing weight of automobiles.

And I'm quite a skinny person. haha

Because of the shape of the back of the fit, it does get a lot of dust and dirt on the back window from the air dumping over the sharp rear end. In some climates that rear windshiled wiper would be a godsend. The weight savings of taking out the wiper and motor are almost insignificant.

Explainzor that to me. Also removing the rear wiper might be a legal issue, if that matters.