Gravel Dust Killing Us!!

[twink90]

I hope someone out there has suggestions on how we can nip this in the butt! Our Explorer has a horrible dust sucking problem when you hit a gravel road. Even with heat/ac all in off position it fills the truck up fast. We have to end up rolling down windows so we can breathe.

I work on a gravel road, and we fish constantly so gravel roads are a constant in our life. I notice the rear window will collect a horrible amount of dust on the top portion. When we do turn on heat/ac you have to step out of the vehicle so you can breathe. My dad did open window on hatchback and try making the seal more secure. I don't think it helped at all.

I considered just replacing all the seals on all doors, but they do not look brittle, or cracked. Winter is coming and we are dreading it. Summer time we can drop all windows and air the dust out, winter sucks with gravel dust!

Any and all suggestions will be welcome. I even considered spraying under-carriage with a sealant. Its almost like a vacuum as it sucks it in the vehicle and seems like its coming from everywhere.

 

[Turdle]

Wow-you're just up the road from me. I wanna go fishin'!!

There is a foam thingy between the inner fender liner and door jamb on my truck. Try packing some more stuff in that area. If you have rust holes in the fender liners that is where it is getting in. Have you tried pulling the plastic trim and sealing the liners from the inside somehow? Stuff rags in there?

 

[Rick]

Turn your HVAC controls to recirculate inside air. Keeping the fan on high can help pressurize the cabin helping to keep dust out. Other than that

 

[CDW6212R]

Very good thought Jon, those fender insulation pieces are hard to get to fit well. Without one there will be a lot more wind noise from the door area. I have messed with more than one to get a good fit in the fender.

The older Explorers have the same door seals and those fender seals as the 95-01's. The door seals are about $40 from Ford, I have bought several of them. I suggest doing the seals for sure, and finding any other holes in the body. It is common to find small holes in the rear floor at the back corners, under the rug. Seal any of those up, clean it all well, test it all and do it again. Welcome to the site,

 

[twink90]

I found a split at the bottom of the back hatchback where the rubber seal meats plastic. Its about 1/4 inch and I put some apoxy in it temporarily. Battling trying to remove front window motor right now. Not going so well, more complicated then I actually thought.

I will order a new seal for the rear window and hatchback. I did grab a couple cans of undercoating anti-corosion yesterday. Just incase I found holes undernearth the explorer. Figured I would give it a good cleaning and see what we had going on.

thanks again..

We fish at LaCygne once it cools down. Nothing like the fight of the Wipers when it gets cold.

 

[beauboy]

These are good suggestions for your inside air. With as much dust as you describe, I wonder how often you're having to change your air filter. For that, you might search on here for fabricating an elephant trunk and installing an air precleaner. There are about 5 types on the market, but the best is the Sy-Klone Series 9000 precleaner (a.k.a. CAT Turbine precleaner or John Deere Rotary Ejector). These things have proven to save hundreds, even thousands of $ on filter replacement costs in industrial environments. The military HUMVEEs use them in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.

Just my input. Best of luck.