Dust!!

[tony_s]

I’ve posted before that the D5 doesn’t seem as dust proof as the D4. This might be one reason why. These are our third row seats.
Tony

[juliatea]

Tony have you got both grommets in place for the spare wheel winch?
The reason I ask is that when I was fitting my spare wheel winch adapter I used a mirror to have a look between the 2 floor skins. There appeared to be a surprising amount of daylight filtering into this space and I wondered if the lower skin allowed water to be drained out easily to give Land Rover the 900mm wading depth. That was the reason that I looked for a means of sealing the area around the winch so water does not come in and found the silicone tube that I bought from Autobarn, and cut roughly to shape.
The potential for dust ingress did not occur to me. I will be sure to put extra silicone sealer on top and bottom of the tube!
Julia

[tony_s]

Hi Julia. Yes both grommets are in place. I have previously noticed quite a bit of dust on the lower one so it is obviously getting in somewhere. I haven’t had a good look yet to chase it down.
Tony

[tony_s]

I have had a LR dealer’s head mechanic look at my dust problem. He said that it is probably coming in the vents that are in the frame where the tailgate closes; these vents have a rubber diaphragm in them and serve to equalise air pressure. He suggested covering them when in dusty situations. All sounds a bit dubious to me.
However, when I removed the rear load space cover to fit a Traxide system I did find a lot of dust around the grommet where cabling goes through to the trailer plug. So I gunked that up and I’ll see how it goes on our next trip.
Tony

[Graeme]

Do you have the a/c set to fresh or recirculate? Fresh air and windows closed should keep the dust out.

[tony_s]

Do you have the a/c set to fresh or recirculate? Fresh air and windows closed should keep the dust out.

Recirculate when dusty to pressurise the cabin.
Tony

[DiscoMick]

Yep, recirculate.
Might also spray the door rubbers with lanolin. Dust will stick to the lanolin.
Lanolin does not damage rubber like some other sprays.

[Graeme]

Fresh air and lots of it are needed to pressurise the cabin. Air will be drawn out from anywhere it can so force clean air in from the front.

[tony_s]

Fresh air and lots of it are needed to pressurise the cabin. Air will be drawn out from anywhere it can so force clean air in from the front.

Hi Graeme. The advice I have been given by various Land Rover mechanics for my D1, D4 and now the D5 is to have the recirc on on dirt.
Tony

[Graeme]

The only time to use recirculate is when driving in another vehicle's dust, either from the car in front or from a passing car.

Pressurising requires air from outside the area being pressurised. Positive pressure from the outside is required so don't let the a/c determine the fan speed, instead set it quite high manually at least on half speed.

[SBD4]

Recirculate when dusty to pressurise the cabin.
Tony
I think that is based on the assumption that dust will only enter via the HVAC system. If there is concern that dust is entering via seals or other means then the only way to minimise that is to pressurise the cabin in the way that Graeme describes.

[DiscoMick]

Defenders are not exactly tightly sealed against dust so I'm not worried about a shortage of fresh air on recirculate. [emoji3]

[RobA]

Our D4 leaks like a sieve from the rear door seals which I have given up replacing. Did the recirculate thing and made it no better and perhaps worse you could see the dust in the cabin. Moved to fresh and fan speed up high and we have the issue almost under control but the interior always has a noticeable and fine dust patina after every trip

So fresh works, sort of, for me

Rob

[DiscoMick]

Spray the door seals with lanolin and the dust will stick to it.

[Graeme]

Even though a good supply of fresh air is used to pressurise the cabin to prevent ingress of dust while moving, dust will accumulate around the tailgate and rear doors which gets sucked inside as the tailgate or door is opened unless a window or sunroof is opened beforehand, although some dust may still fall in or be blown in. The L322 is normally particularly bad for accumulating dust above the upper tailgate which then drops straight into the cargo area, although I have reduced the dust by fitting an air deflector to the spoiler. The D3/D4 is not nearly so bad.

[scarry]

Our D4 leaks like a sieve from the rear door seals which I have given up replacing. Did the recirculate thing and made it no better and perhaps worse you could see the dust in the cabin. Moved to fresh and fan speed up high and we have the issue almost under control but the interior always has a noticeable and fine dust patina after every trip

So fresh works, sort of, for me

Rob

Our D4 never lets any dust in,and its often on dirt roads.
It is by far the best dust sealed vehicle we have ever had.
And i never worry about what the vent control settings are.

Unlike our last D2a,it leaked dust like a sieve,even after numerous trips to the stealers under warranty,they didn't/couldnt fix it.

[trout1105]

Spray the door seals with lanolin and the dust will stick to it.

+1
It works pretty well on the rear door of my D2a[thumbsupbig]

[desertrover]

Even though a good supply of fresh air is used to pressurise the cabin to prevent ingress of dust while moving, dust will accumulate around the tailgate and rear doors which gets sucked inside as the tailgate or door is opened unless a window or sunroof is opened beforehand, although some dust may still fall in or be blown in. The L322 is normally particularly bad for accumulating dust above the upper tailgate which then drops straight into the cargo area, although I have reduced the dust by fitting an air deflector to the spoiler. The D3/D4 is not nearly so bad.

Agree 100% on the fresh air setting + rear tailgate issues on the 320 / 322. Another trick they will do is if your cabin temperature is vastly out of sync with the A/C set temp it will override your understanding of dust ingress and automatically switch to recirculate in an attempt to reach the set temp and that will start sucking dust straight in. In the bull dust at 40-50 ambient I will gradually reduce the temperature to something the A/C will handle and usually end up with a cabin temp of mid 20's rather than try and have it ice cold. If you stop to open a gate cold air goes out, cabin temp rises and then you will often be on recirc when you set off. I only ever use recirculate when following close or passing in the dust, but much better for you (and your engine) to get out of dust or let it settle a bit.
good luck

[DiscoMick]

Just leave it on 24 all the time and it will be set and forget.

[weeds]

I agree with Graeme....you need air coming in to pressurize....

My old school defer I have front vents fully open and air-con on with on dusty roads. Next to no dust enters the usual places.

[DiscoMick]

Recirculating keeps out the dust.

[PhilipA]

In my RRC and D2 I blocked off the exit vents for the aircon.

This enabled the pressure to rise vs outside when the aircon was on "fresh". If the exit vents are clear then the pressure rise is reduced.

When in dust of another vehicle My SWMBO is tasked to quickly switch from fresh to recirc. I also searched behind trim to find the many captured nut holes etc and blocked them off. For the D4 owner having dust in the rear doors. Has someone taken off the door trims and not completely replaced the plastic film?

Dust on the tailgate is another matter. I use a small dustpan brush to clean off the top of the tailgate before opening.

It was worse on the RRC but I also had an airtank plumbed and used a blower to clean the dust off.

Regards Philip A

[DI5CO]

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Is this bad? I thought so but the dealer said it’s normal. My D2 didn’t leak that bad......almost lol
Anyway speaking with a LR approved panel shop (Lance Dixon’s) about another matter, I asked him about it and he said you may be able to make small adjustments with the metal lug things that the tailgate latches onto to pull in tighter. He also said that the actual latch has adjustment as well (upper tailgate section) so maybe the D5 has that adjustment too which would pull the tailgate in tighter.
Dave.

[tony_s]

That’s terrible! Our D4 let in absolutely NO dust. And that is far worse than our D5. No way should that be considered normal.
Tony

[SBD4]

Same as Tony, absolutely no dust in our D4 ever. That is completely unacceptable.