dust entering cabin on dirt roads

[Spanna55]

Hi Everyone

I have a 2021 SR5, I live on a farm and have about 5 km's of dirt roads to get home. Im getting large amounts of dust coming in through the front and rear door seals. I've raised this with Toyota service centre and had rear door seals replaced but it continues to occur. Anyone else experiencing this issue or have any advice on how his can be rectified as the service area do not seem too interested to rectify or help.

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers Craig

[Rob_Wood]

10 KMs dirt road, same thing. Set your AC (almost.permanently) to recirculate. Always run the fan, on around 2 is usual. It's not a complete solution, but the idea is to build a positive pressure in the cab.
My ute also has 2 sets of door rubbers (one on top of the other). Not my choice, it was already there when I bought it.
I also have some of the firewall grommets missing or damaged, something else on my "to do" list.
Biggest problem I have is sealing the canopy on the tub.

[Chopps]

Dont you mean set AC to fresh air?
To create positive pressure fresh air forced into the cab with high fan will push the door seals out into the door jams creating a dust proof barrier and push any dusty air out
To test this your self wind up all windows and close all doors while in the drive way.
Start engine, put AC on recirculate fan high, open one door, gently close it with just enough force to close it with a flick of the wrist.

Now switch to fresh vent flow, with the same force and flick close the door. It wont close due to the positive pressure.

[hiluxxury]

X2 for positive pressure.

[Rob_Wood]

Dont you mean set AC to fresh air?
To create positive pressure fresh air forced into the cab with high fan will push the door seals out into the door jams creating a dust proof barrier and push any dusty air out
To test this your self wind up all windows and close all doors while in the drive way.
Start engine, put AC on recirculate fan high, open one door, gently close it with just enough force to close it with a flick of the wrist.

Now switch to fresh vent flow, with the same force and flick close the door. It wont close due to the positive pressure.

Nah, what I'm talking about is the fresh air setting is just pumping dusty air into the cab. The positive pressure you're creating is absolute minimum, but every little bit helps. We do it this way in the fire trucks to reduce the amount of smoke we get into the cabs. It's not 100% effective, but it does help.

[Gipsy]

Rob, the reason recycle is used on firetrucks is to avoid sucking smoke into the cabin through the fresh air intake, obviously if the air is filled with smoke it will go through the fresh air intake. On your hilux the fresh air intake is on the bonnet in front of the dust! All things change if you are following another vehicle on a dusty road or driving through smoke. Use fresh rather than recycle unless following another vehicle or in smoke... This gives positive pressure in the cabin to minimise dust intake.

[Rob_Wood]

Rob, the reason recycle is used on firetrucks is to avoid sucking smoke into the cabin through the fresh air intake, obviously if the air is filled with smoke it will go through the fresh air intake. On your hilux the fresh air intake is on the bonnet in front of the dust! All things change if you are following another vehicle on a dusty road or driving through smoke. Use fresh rather than recycle unless following another vehicle or in smoke... This gives positive pressure in the cabin to minimise dust intake.

"On the bonnet"? Maybe on the later models I guess.

[Gipsy]

So where else is the fresh air intake on your hilux Rob? Ever since my first corolla in 1968 the fresh air intake was in front of the windscreen and in a grill at the rear of the bonnet. I've never seen one elsewhere. Before that we had 'quarter vents' in the side windows to direct air into the cabin. But that was in ancient history.

[Rob_Wood]

So where else is the fresh air intake on your hilux Rob? Ever since my first corolla in 1968 the fresh air intake was in front of the windscreen and in a grill at the rear of the bonnet. I've never seen one elsewhere. Before that we had 'quarter vents' in the side windows to direct air into the cabin. But that was in ancient history.

In the Jurrasic era here. My 2004 Hilux has quarter vents.
Yes, after your clarification of BEHIND the bonnet and not ON the bonnet I agree with you. But I think you'd also agree that the air intake would require regular filter cleaning or replacement. Mine doesn't even have a filter fitted, nor have I been able to find the correct replacement filter.
A couple of weeks ago my 5YO cleaned the dash enough for me to see the Speedo etc.

[Gipsy]

From my understanding the modern hilux has a pollen filter in the AC but not in the fresh air intake. Apparently it only works on recirculation setting but I may be wrong. A filter would not help much with smoke and dust though. As you can gather though the way to keep dust out of the cab in normal conditions positive ventilation is the best solution.

[Rob_Wood]

Agreed

[Spanna55]

Thanks for the advice and input, just to clarify you can see the dust coming in from the door seals area when the air con is on recirculate on dirt roads, I've tried both air con options and the fresh air option seems to work better!!!

if a window is down or the air con is on recirculate dust pours in..... I've previously owned a Triton and a Ranger and had no issues at all with either of these cars under exactly the same conditions and situations. My assumption was is that the door seals are faulty as dust shouldn't come into the cabin regardless of what function the air con is placed?? Not sure what other options I have??

Thanks again everyone. Cheers Craig

[Silverfox1111]

It's not just that there is a partially open rear cabin wall vent letting the dust in?

[ptommo59]

Even on recirculate there has to be a percentage of fresh air entering the cabin but this comes through the rear wall vents that open when air (and on dirt roads dust) is drawn in on recirculate.
These should stay closed when you are on fresh air from the front vents due to positive cabin pressure.