Dust in Prado

Just about any car will get dust inside if the operator does not take precautions.

1 run the airconditioning on fresh when there is no traffic around with the fan on medium.
2 When someone comes the other way task your copilot to turn onto recirc until the dust clears.
3 I find that blocking the outlet vents in the back helps to pressurize the car.

4 check with a piece of paper or whatever that the rear door seal contacts all the way around and if not adjust it.

5 look under the trim panels to see if there are any unfilled holes in the panels and if there are bog them up with Sikaflex or similar.
If you do all that you may still get a bit of dust in but not as much.
.

Hi Lloyd

It will happen to any vehicle and the best way to stop it is to have your air system to fresh, and not recirculating, turn on your a/c and that will pressurise the vehicle and any air escaping from your vehicle will be forced out of areas where it is not sealing, and in doing so will stop dust entering your vehicle.


Cheers


Stephen

For dust to enter there has to be a negative pressure inside. I had a 60 series LC. And made a rear side door window insert which fitted into the upper channel and held in by the window wound up. It directed air into the insert and straight to the rear compartment, thereby pressurizing it. Having seals actually seal as mentioned above is a good starting point. The vehicle design must be causing dust to be sucked up to the rear door, does it have a downward air director built into the rear door to destroy the vacuum caused by forward movement? If not effective, there will be dust to the seals and drain holes of rear door. Redirecting or increasing air from over the door to wash down the rear is very easily done and works.

Lloyd

Had a Nissan Patrol with a barn rear door with bad dust problems and the same problem with a 90 series Prado



My hundred Series IFS with the 2 piece folding tailgate just completed 6000 km on mainly dirt roads had minimal dust ingress

The Barn doors just don’t seal as well probably because of the weight of the large single door .

Just my thoughts
Cheers .

Lloyd, I take the spare off the door and put it on the roof rack and this helps on my 2009 Prado 120 .

Also check the rubber bungs in the rear quarters are not letting dust in from below.

I agree with the pressure remarks above.

Good luck, Graham

I had a 2007 120 Series with factory towbar fitted by my dealer. The monkeys that fitted the towbar didn't properly insert the harness grommets, one of which was difficult to get to. I got heaps of dust as a result, inside the rear linings and roof lining.

Agree re the barn door with the spare wheel hanging off it - very difficult to seal that. Try to create positive air pressure.

Lloyd
This was a problem with the first of the present shaped Pajeros (NM 2000 to about 2005). It could be fixed with a new rubber sealing system once Mitsubishi accepted their design fault, they fixed it on subsequent models. I haven't had too many issues in the last 500 000km in my subsequent two vehicles despite doing a few thousand kms on dirt each year (though dust on rear door sill is a PIA)

Tyre on rear door may not help, but I think it's something you should be haranguing your dealer with, may be a light alignment problem on your door, or issue with the seals.
Air on fresh and fan on high works for me, it's also stated in my Pajero owners guide
Best of luck
Mark

Lloyd
Do you have window sun shields on your doors?
Did you travel on the dusty roads with any windows down at any stage?
If any front window is down a little and you have sun shields too, the passing air from around the A pillar simply draws air out of the vehicle and causes a negative pressure inside, that will draw in dust through any rear door or vent hole, even though you may have the fresh air vents of dash open.

Hi Lloyd

We have had a 2007 Prado since new and never had a problem. Have travelled over plenty of gravel and dust.

We always have the aircon on as recommended above.

If it is still happening with the aircon on I can only think you must have a faulty seal.

Regards

We've got a 2014 Prado. If you have it on recirc the dust is pretty bad. If it's on fresh then ours seals pretty well. What setting were you using?

If you're driving on lots of dusty roads make sure you check the cabin filter behind the glovebox.

One known area of dust ingress is the vent at the rear of the vehicle. It has a flap that doesnt seal properly in a lot of cases and can let a lot of dust in.

A few owners on Pradopoint have actually sealed the vent off which seems to help with the dust ingress, but probably doesnt help with air circulation.

The early 70;s model Falcons were notorious for dust and water leaks. In the dealership where I worked the procedure used to be to shut all the windows, light a couple of smoke bombs in the car and you could see where the leaks were.Sometimes it's easier using a torch to see if there's any smoke leaking out. Don't know if those smoke things are still available.
Fixing dust and water leaks !!!!!!!!!!! probably the worst job to do on cars.

aircond on fresh as much as possible