Dust

[davidgate]

Finally after a year of prep I took the Puma on its first real trek.

We did Blackall to Windorah via Idalia and Welford National Parks (Western Queensland) a total of about 3,000 km (from Sunshine Coast).

The truck didn't miss a beat. Except, I knew it would happen - dust infiltrated everywhere.

Any recomendations in terms of dustproofing a Defender? Is it even possible? :confused:

A couple of pics below - in the Channel Country its always dry and dusty - if its not you can't get in anyway.

Dave G

50073

50074

[rick130]

[snip]

Any recomendations in terms of dustproofing a Defender? Is it even possible? :confused:

[snip]



:Rolling::Rolling::Rolling:


























Sorry Dave, couldn't resist :D

[vnx205]

Any recomendations in terms of dustproofing a Defender? Is it even possible? :confused:



Yes, open the front vents to pressurise the cab.

You do still have front vents don't you? :D :p

[Reads90]

Yes, open the front vents to pressurise the cab.

You do still have front vents don't you? :D :p

Yeah we did this with the 90 soft top on our trip around Aus and did not get any dust in the car.

[Tombie]

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/08/650.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/08/651.jpg

[TimNZ]

Buy a tube of car coloured filler
Go for a drive through some muddy water, wait for car to dry
Pull out all the mats/floor coverings etc
Look for the dirty spots inside the cabin from the muddy water and seal with the filler, (Seat boxes and rear tub are the worst).
Fit the improved door seals if you don't already have them: LR Part No LR029309 for the Front doors and Rear passenger doors are LR029307 and LR029308
Always drive in dusty conditions with the windows up and the fan on external supply to pressurise the cabin.

Cheers,

Tim

[Drover]

Pretty much what Tim said. You can use a bright light underneath, remove mats etc....and SikaFlex everywhere the light one through. I used several tubes around the sill, floor plates and particulary around the rear door frames.

The new style door rubber make a massive difference, so again what Tim said...

After this process and pressurizing the cab, I am now virtually dust free...true

Dust egres is as good as my old D3.

[MR LR]

Get rid of that silly dash and fit one with vents ;)

Worst thing LR ever did IMO, that is the ONLY reason i would not have a puma... :(

As the others have said, play with sikaflex and seals, might as well add some insulation while you're at it ;)

Cheers
Will

[Sprint]

DUST proof a deefer????? they cant even cat-proof the damn things!

[djam1]

Tim can you use these on older Defenders


Buy a tube of car coloured filler
Go for a drive through some muddy water, wait for car to dry
Pull out all the mats/floor coverings etc
Look for the dirty spots inside the cabin from the muddy water and seal with the filler, (Seat boxes and rear tub are the worst).
Fit the improved door seals if you don't already have them: LR Part No LR029309 for the Front doors and Rear passenger doors are LR029307 and LR029308
Always drive in dusty conditions with the windows up and the fan on external supply to pressurise the cabin.

Cheers,

Tim

[TimNZ]

I don't think so.... I believe LR changed the door frames in 2002? So any Defender after then will be OK.

[Brad110]

Its not the only car that allows dust in but the only one that you can hose out.

You can only reduce it but eradication is a false hope.

[Marty110]

I actually made a warranty claim on LR for dust intrusion after our first trip away (car only 300km old at time) to the High Country. They spent a lot of time and money and ended up reducing the dust by about 60%. They did a full underbody seal which involved wrapping everything that was not to be sprayed with sealer in either plastic or foil. New door seals, tape on panel behind the seals to 'tighten' them up (their words), etc. I have since used a lot of Sikaflex filling other panel gaps too. They tried to get out of it by claiming my 'extensive modifications' had affected the panel seals - the only body mods were lift up doors from Dolium in place of the rear windows - they were the only seals on the car that did not leak dust!! They even said the roof rack had caused dust to leak in by 'distorting the body'. In the end they did the work though so credit to them. Before it went down to have this done I spent a half a day on a garage roller under the car filling holes not trusting what they would do - all ended up hidden under the body sealer they sprayed on. Now with the windows up, aircon on, set to recirc, we don't get any more dust than other vehicles on trips we go on (all makes). Did Googs last year in convoy and hardly any dust at all. So if your cars up to 3 yrs new you CAN try a claim on LR....

For those who think I was being a sook about the dust - it was worse than my 300TDi Deefer and the entire interior was under a coat of dust so thick that you could not see the surface. I have included a pic of a Pelican case that was on the back seat with electronic gear inside (lucky it was in the case!!) and one of the dash about half way through the trip, so it got a lot more on it by the end!!

[ThoBar]

My response is to cover everything IN the car that you don't want dust on... the front vents trick works, until you're behind another car or 3....

[davidgate]

Thanks for all the feedback - I thought it was the imperfect door seal that were the problem - I will get some Sykaflex look for all the holes underneath.:)

Thanks

Dave G

[n plus one]

Err, apologies if I'm teaching anyone to suck eggs but, not withstanding the obvious limitations of any Defender in the dust proofing stakes, you'll keep the most dust out of your truck by running your fan on the open setting.

Basically you're just trying to pressurise the cab (like the front vents used to) - recirc just makes the car want to suck up the dust from its own wheels - there's crap loads more of that waiting to get into your cab than there is comming of the oncoming traffic.

Not saying the mods described above wouldn't help heaps (sounds pretty good actually), but you can see daylight everywhere out of my Puma and a couple of thousand kays offroad in WA bulldust didn't result in too much dust inside - most of it was around the back door i.e. the low pressure zone...