Oh no! Dead leaves in the crevices!

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by DaveShepherd, Nov 8, 2009.

  1. DaveShepherd

    DaveShepherd Member

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    It's leaf-raking time here in the mid-Atlantic. Since the weather's nice around DC this weekend, everybody's got the rakes and leaf-blowers out. Last week the trees dumped the foliage of the past year onto, and into, my car.

    This afternoon I stopped at the coin-operated car vacuum at my local gas station to suck up the dead leaves from the driver's and passenger's floorboards. As an afterthought, I opened the hatchback and vacuumed the leaves there too. Then under the hood, at the air intake cowl thingy (where the hood meets the windshield wipers).

    I noticed much to my dismay that there are leaves stuck way back in deep places beyond the air cowl and the engine compartment. This is just like my wife's BMW 325i, and just like a 1994 Pontiac Bonneville we used to own. There's a deep valley right between each front fender and the side doors that seems to attract dead leaves. Once leaves get stuck back in there, they become a compost pile that will never come out.

    I don't think my Gen II had this problem. My daughter's got that car at college now, but I seem to recall that I could vacuum all the leaf debris from the engine compartment without having to dig.

    In this, our first North American autumn with the Gen III Prius, has anybody figured out how to get all the dead leaves out?
     
    #1 DaveShepherd, Nov 8, 2009
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  2. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    Don't park your car under trees!!!!
     
    #2 bighouse, Nov 8, 2009
  3. DaveShepherd

    DaveShepherd Member

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    Heh heh. Funny.

    Suburban streets. Trees everywhere you look. No carport.

    No, seriously, how do I get the crap out of there?
     
    #3 DaveShepherd, Nov 8, 2009
  4. PriusRos

    PriusRos A Fairly Senior Member - 2016 Prius Owner

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    I have no garage or carport either and have a leaf problem like you. Every time I wash/polish the car (which is basically any weekend when it's not raining) I will first open up all the doors and the hood and if necessary use the leaf blower to blow out the leaves. I think the Gen II was just as bad, if not worse.
     
    #4 PriusRos, Nov 8, 2009
  5. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Yes the leaf blower is the ticket. Open all the doors, take out all the mats and right after a wash blow it all out. Works really good to blow out all the moisture and debris. Put the blower nozzle in all the cracks especailly under the hood.

    Also with your issue of no garage and lots of leaves using the water hose and with the hood open fill up the black plastic dam right under the front windshield. Don't let water splash over the dam just fill the dam up real good. Then check for good water flow out the dams vents which are behind each front wheel. Should have good flow right behind each front wheel with dam full. I would do that often given your circumstances. If that dam area gets clogged your ac system will stink with fresh air selected.

    Good Luck!
     
    #5 edthefox5, Nov 8, 2009
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  6. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    I had a neighbor who had this issue at his house and what he did was use small cloth tarp just big enough to cover the windshield wipers and black grill under the windshield- and then used bean bags to keep it in place so it wouldn't blow away when the wind kicked up. It's sole purpose was to keep leaves out of that area. I think one of those flexible lead aprons the use for xrays at the dentist would work nicely. I think there's a market opportunity here for someone...
     
    #6 bighouse, Nov 8, 2009
  7. jburns

    jburns Senior Senior Member

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    You're right. I'm going to start a caterpillar rental business!
     
    #7 jburns, Nov 8, 2009
  8. DaveShepherd

    DaveShepherd Member

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    The leaf blower might well be the solution. (Of course, my leaf blower died this weekend too, but that's another story.)

    But I'm still not sure that'll attack the specific problem I'm talking about. It's not just leaves under the hood, or leaves covering the A/C intake. I can get those out, and have done so, using a combination of vacuum cleaner and leaf blower.

    It's the leaves in the hole behind the end of the A/C intake that I can't get to. There's a hole created by the front of the side-door panel that I almost would not have noticed. When I looked back there, it was filled with leaves. The vacuum nozzle was too big to reach into that gap. And I am almost certain that hole was not a problem in the Gen II.

    I might end up using the furniture-crack nozzle (long, flat snout-like thing) on my house vacuum cleaner to see what I can get out.

    I do like the idea of temporarily using a tarp to cover the A/C cowl. I don't think I'd want to trap moisture in there all the time, though.
     
    #8 DaveShepherd, Nov 9, 2009
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