more aerodynamic = more rocks hitting windshield

Don't have my Prius yet, but I've noticed a lot more bugs on the windshield of my MINI compared to my Saab. This car has basically no hood area, and is very aerodynamic. Or is it just because there's more bugs out there now, and I notice every speck of dirt or bug on him?

 

I've had stones hit my windshield before and crack it. If it is under the size of a Quarter and isn't directly in the line of site of the driver. they may just seal it, to prevent it from spreading. They did this with my 74 Camaro. Looked like they pumped all of the debris out, and then applied some magical clear sealer. I think the idea in using the pump is to get all of the mositure out.

 

Timely topic, I got a windshield rock crack in a high visible area two weeks ago. I drove in to Windshield Express the next day and got it fixed with resin for $35. It left a very small slightly hazy area, but I'm more than willing to take that over putting up with the hassle and expense of having a new windshield installed.

 

The glass is thinner.

 

EFUSCO and M4PRIUS make the most sense here. A rock large enough to goose your windshield doesn't give a toss about the puny aerodynamic forces on your 55mph Prius. You do drive 55 don't you? See what it says at the bottom of my posts. Isaac Newton always wins.

 

I doubt the aerodynamic boundary layer has any significant effect on a projectile moving with enough force to crack a laminated windshield. The number of hits is probably a function of the geometry shape and position of the window/hood relative to the road. :idea:

 

I agree with this - I've already had to replace my windshield once and I continue to get hit with rocks quite often. This windshield is a monster, when they replaced it they had a truck full of windshields and the Prius windshield was the biggest of them all, by far. Also, compared to a car with a flatter nose that creates a wind wall that deflects bugs and pebbles above the car by the time they get to the area of the windshield, the prius does not do this, so they just fly right at the windshield and hit it... fun.

 

Oh, the windshield that they replaced was a genuine toyota windshield - still had the sticker and Made in Japan on it. They don't have a Prius windshield yet, and it took about 4 days to get one delivered from Toyota. Oh, and it was $853.... yep. Thankfully Arizona requires that insurance companies offer $0 glass deductibles here...

 

has anyone tried the Hood Deflector to see if this helps in preventing direct hits to the windshield???

 

As an alternative theory, maybe rocks hit all cars with similar frequency, and new car owners are more sensitive about it, and therefore perceive it as happening more often.

 

Nope, I really think that it happens more on this car.... look at a car in a wind tunnel and see how the wind flows over it - a lot of cars are actually designed with a bit of a lift over the hood and windshield and since this car has a .36 coefficient of drag, I'm guessing that nothing was done to lift projectiles over the car. And then you have a windshield that's almost twice as big as in an Accord or Passat...

That hood deflector is pretty cool though - looks like it's pretty much flush with the car. I bet it would help!

 

This link has a pic of an Insight in a wind tunnel... and the Prius is a lot more aerodynamic meaning the wind is really hitting the windshield now, at 65mph you already know what your hand feels like out the window, and how much force their is - so imagine pebbles bombarding your windshield with the same force.

Can anyone find wind tunnel pics of the Prius?

http://www.insightcentral.net/KB/compare/p...rodynamics.html

I also ran into this while searching - the pics at the bottom are interesting!

http://www.ccastronomy.org/field_trips_nas..._2001-08-03.htm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"vapor_pearl\")</div>

:iagree I think Vapor_pearl is on to something here! My last car was a two door Ford Explorer. I had to replace the windshield FOUR times in seven years because of rocks. I think that blows the aerodynamic theory out of the water -the Explorer is nothing close to aerodynamic...it was like driving a toaster on wheels!

 

This is interesting, because in my '03 Prius I have already 1) had the windhield replaced and 2) picked up more chips than I did in the 9 years I owned my Camry and the 20 years I owned my Honda Civic. My '04 already has no less than 4 pits in it (no cracks). I had been so surpised at the damage to my '03 that I posed the idea of the more aeordynamic slope of the windshield and the hood causing the damage to be more likely to a Toyota engineer at the '04 Prius "Engines of Change" launch event here in LA. The engineer replied that they had no statistics on windshield damage, but that the idea had some merit. The "back pressure" of a more vertical windshield might cause fewer rocks to hit. Don't know. All I DO know is that both the '03 and '04 have suffered more windshield nicks than ALL my other cars I have ever owned since 1968.

 

I actually started thinking about this when I noticed two things:

1- On a recent drive to SF from L.A., I seemed to have a tremendous number of bug strikes on the car.

2- When washing the windshield on the highway, it seems like the water doesn't stream away as completely as in other cars.

My theory was that because the car is cutting through the air more effectively, it's got less of that "wall of air" effect going in front of it, so anything in the air in front of the car is more likely to keep coming at the car than to be deflected away.

And to those who claim that a vehicle doesn't push enough air to deflect a flying rock: you ever driven past a semi and had your car rock to the side? If they can push enough air to rock a 1 ton car, how much less air do you have to push to deflect a lousy rock?