Dust!

C

cliwel

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Have a 5th Gen Limited. I live on gravel roads. The inside of my car is coated in dust. The windows and sunroof are closed when I drive on my road. Has anyone else had this problem? I think it is coming in through the hatch.
 
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Another thing you might look into is having the air cycle on recirculate so it's not bringing in the dust and outside air.
 
cliwel said:
Have a 5th Gen Limited. I live on gravel roads. The inside of my car is coated in dust. The windows and sunroof are closed when I drive on my road. Has anyone else had this problem? I think it is coming in through the hatch.
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Yes. I have the same problem. I've a sr5. I drive on atacama desert in Chile. Windows closed and air recirculate on max. LOTS of dust inside.

Help!!
 
Same issue here. I live on a dirt road and we haven't had rain in ages in Texas. Every time I open the doors, the dust/dirt from the sills just blows into the vehicle all over everything. It's pretty bad.
 
Lots of dust!

Hi
I have been driving much on the Atacama Desert in Chile. I Keep windows closed and the air conditioner on recirculate the air, despite that, I have a lot of dust inside the cabin and i don't know where it comes from.

Anyone know?
This dust can damage electronic components?
How I can clean up?

Thanks in advance
 
Seems to be two of these threads going at once.

Anyway, Recirc OFF, fan ON. This pressurizes the cabin and works much better than Recirc ON.
 
I have a huge problem with dust as well, but my windows are nearly always down so it is no surprise to me. Seems to be much worse in the third row/cargo area.
 
I have a huge problem with dust as well, but my windows are nearly always down so it is no surprise to me. Seems to be much worse in the third row/cargo area.
 
JB. said:
Recirc OFF, fan ON. This pressurizes the cabin and works much better than Recirc ON.
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JB, if you turn off Recirc, doesn't the HVAC system then default to the "dusty outside air"? If true, pushing the outside air in may in fact add a bit of pressure inside the cabin, and that air will go through the filter. But if it is that dusty, the cabin filter will only trap so much, and it will clog the filter very quickly. Now if it does not default to outside air, then the fan is simply moving the existing air around the cabin and it will NOT increase cabin pressure.

It is my understanding that Recirc, closes off all outside air sources (assuming no other holes in the body somewhere) and the cabin filter will filter the air already in the cabin. If true, seems like a better choice then bringing in the outside air. And I suspect the air systems are different between the TE, SR5 and Limited.
 
The 4Runner is not airtight. Door seals, grommets, etc are not usually airtight. One thing I do is turn fan on med-high and crack a side window. This might help for really fine dust as it creates an air current throughout your vehicle with a definite outlet. Cracking a side window also creates a slight venturi effect which helps "suck" air from your 4Runner. If you have ever had a bug in there and he flew close to the crack they really did not want to fly out, they got sucked out! If you do not crack a sidewindow then air is forced to recirculate through the filter which is good for big stuff not so good for really really fine stuff. Make sure you close the window art really slow speeds or at rest though and do not crack the back window!
 
Recirc Off Fan On- in manual

The owners manual states exactly that. It states that if you are driving on a dusty road, turn recirc off and the fan on.
 
ROBSCOOL said:
The owners manual states exactly that. It states that if you are driving on a dusty road, turn recirc off and the fan on.
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Great info and good catch. One can assume then that "Recirc" still allows some outside air in, right? This would seem to be different then other vehicles I have owned, or maybe not!
 
the source of dust is not the fan, but dust entering from other areas (imo mostly at the back) when you negatively pressurize the vehicle by using recirc. Throw on the fan, and suddenly you positively pressurize the cabin... no unfiltered air entering - no dust. I might consider hitting the recirc button for a short bit if I was driving through a dust cloud (say from an oncoming vehicle on a dirt road) just to save the filter. If you think about it, 99% of the dust you are creating off your own vehicle is behind the entry point for cabin air, so its hard to think its getting through.

Not sure im 100% on board with opening a window a crack, it will work to suck an item out of the window (like the fly that was mentioned) but it also negatively pressurizes the cabin causing dust to enter at other points IMO. Any time I've driven with the back window (or one of the rears) down even just a bit I feel it gets dirtier than usual.
 
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Jtraskell said:
JB, if you turn off Recirc, doesn't the HVAC system then default to the "dusty outside air"? If true, pushing the outside air in may in fact add a bit of pressure inside the cabin, and that air will go through the filter. But if it is that dusty, the cabin filter will only trap so much, and it will clog the filter very quickly.
Click to expand...

If it's that dusty, then I'm going recirc ON, Fan OFF, but that's not always feasible for long stretches.

One can assume then that "Recirc" still allows some outside air in, right? This would seem to be different then other vehicles I have owned, or maybe not!
Click to expand...

I don't think any vehicles within the last few decades allow the elimination of all outside air. Too risky.
 
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