Mud flaps or NOT?

Just wondering how many of you all have mud flaps on your 5th gen Legacy? If so, do you have the OEM Subaru ones? I have read that they help with snow building up in the wheel wells. What do you all think of that?

 

How hard is it to install the rear mud flaps on a 5th gen? I found a video for the front, and they look really easy. Last, what did you all pay for them?

 

Would love to hear your thoughts. Are they worth it or not? I live in the midwest, so I do get quite a bit of snow. I'm just debating if it's worth the spending the money on or not, and whether it will truly help keep the building up down in my wheel wells.

 

Thanks much!

I have the - ahem - mud guards that are from the factory. Not a fan, really.

I had the OEM ones. I took them off and replaced them with Rally Armor flaps, which is pretty common place.

 

I had mine for sale for shipping cost only.... i.e. free. Nobody wanted them after 6 months so I threw them in the trash.

 

Rally Armor flaps do a LOT more.

I have them and can truely say I have them just to keep toad salt from building up on the side of the car during winter months. I do ALOT of driving and mostly have them just to protect the paint, and they're effective at doing that.

Rally Armours will set you back about 125$ easy peasy to put on

Love my rally armors. Worth every penny in my opinion

I wish I had bought them. For the first 2 1/2 years that I owned my Legacy, my commute include a lot highway miles. I know have a lot chips on the leading edge of the rear quarter flares.

+1 on the rally armors. Not only do they function great, they give you that extra aggressive look.

I went to Canadian Tire and bought generic black plastic mud flaps.....similar to Rally Armor but not quite as big...$22 for all 4....a snap to mount....look good IMHO and work really well.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/RM-RS/4_zps351f88ac.jpg

I have the - ahem - mud guards that are from the factory. Not a fan, really.

 

care to sell them? I really like the subdued look of the stock guards so if anyone is looking to get rid of them for money I'll buy it.

^ I have the set off my car for sale in my for sale thread forum

Just installed a rallybroflaps on my friends GT aswell, super simple. The hardest part is figuring which way the brackets go for the rear haha After that its a breeze. I'd recommend taking the rear wheels off, the screw for the farthest mounting point (closer to the strut side) is hard to get to even with a small screw driver. if you take the wheel off it'll take you like 3 mins :]

I have the OEM mud guards on front and rear and have no complaints. The main reason was snow/salt/sand/etc hitting the doors and rear.

I think they do a decent job.

I just clay barred and waxed my car last week (first time since last summer) and found the paint to be a great shape. The proof is that my front bumper is heavily pitted from 54,000 miles of NY/LI/CT driving with harsh winters, sand and salt like crazy. The bumper is rough. I clay barred and then used Maguires paint cleaner (step 1) and then waxed. it came out much better.

But the sides of the car and the rear look great. I'm sure the mud guards helped with that.

 

My 23 year old Honda Prelude had similar mud guards front and rear, and the paint also held up very well!

Rally Armor offers the best paint protection. The OEM guards sit on the paint and grit and grime will get packed behind them and eventually permanently scratch the paint where they touch paint, so if you put them on, you have to leave them there to hide the damaged paint. The OEM ones came with my car and I removed them in lieu of Rally Armors to avoid paint damage before the first winter.

I had minor scuffing when I took them off but it came out with some McGuire's Scratch X 2.0 and elbow grease.

 

I couldn't give those things away. Literally I had them listed for free and nobody would take them. After a few months I chucked them.

GTeaser - that's good advice

thanks

Just installed a rallybroflaps on my friends GT aswell, super simple.

 

Sm00ve, where did you get the flaps? Link? Thanks.

I originally bought my flaps off of a forum guy, Itsme is his name. Although I really haven't heard much from him lately....not sure if he's still on here. Other set I got off a friend who couldn't use them anymore :L

I originally bought my flaps off of a forum guy, Itsme is his name. Although I really haven't heard much from him lately....not sure if he's still on here. Other set I got off a friend who couldn't use them anymore :L

 

I can't tell if you're trying to imply something or not.

Rally Armors for me, but only go on in the winter time. They do a phenomenal job preventing crap from flinging up onto the fenders especially with donuts and drifting on a closed course of course.

I can't tell if you're trying to imply something or not.

Wait what lol

Do they sell ones that say "Subaru" like the ones they have on the 4th Gen Spec B Legacy?

 

Unless it doesn't exist..

The OEMs are too small to do much, and cupped so they catch & hold what they do manage to intercept.

 

The RAs are much bigger & offer better protection for sure, but are a bit flimsy. Back into a curb and they'll rip right off. Get into any real gravel slinging and they won't hold up.

 

Check out the Gorilla Offroad flaps...a bit less expensive and way more durable than RA. My Outback wears 'em after exhausting a set of RAs.

Must be backing into the curbs pretty hard then..I've never had any issues with the RA flaps and they've seen some abuse. Been through mud, rocks, scraped against the ground alot and they're still in perfect shape. The polyU. they use for the flaps is super durable..its supposed to have flex to it. To each his own though. Only thing I've had to do is re-tighten up the screws in the front. Brackets and everything are still mint. Gorilla's are also nice.

Pinch them with a gentle bump between tire & anything else (rock, log, parking barrier, etc.) and see what happens.

 

Perhaps more relevant off-road with the Outbacks higher clearance, but having owned both, I promise you the Gorillas are way tougher.

I got me a set of RA without holes and screws. Does anyone know where can I get the mounting kit? Thanks.

 

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