Issue: Bottom door panels accumulate an abnormal amount of dirt and snow. In addition, the rear door accumulates dirt in the gap between the wheel arch trim and door. More information here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/nx-...the-frame.html

Fix: Install garage door vinyl weather stripping, stapled and glued to existing OEM rubber seal along entire rocker panel length. Apply 1/4 " door weather stripping and silicone caulking to fill the wheel arch trim gap.

Part 1 of 3: Issue and Materials

 

Part 2 of 3: Installation of Extended Rocker Panel Seal

 

Part 3 of 3: Sealing the wheel arch gap

 

You're awesome.

 

Maybe someone from the Lexus division will see this and it could get implemented as a TSB type of fix. As more and more NX's get out on the road it may get more attention.

 

They probably won't, but this looks simple enough to accomplish on a weekend.

 

I am currently looking at my wifes Highlander. It has a better rubber seal compared to our NX and dirt is very minimal. I'm going to check and find if I can do other mods to our NX.

However corradoMR2 made a great DIY, thank you! "A" for the great effort on this.

Lexus will definitely do something to this problem. They just need to see more owners who will file complaints and do the recall. We just have to wait.

 

You're a Champ!
Thank you.

 

Great write-up corrado.

Your pictures also show just how much salt build up can occur in a short period of time...

 

Great DIY Corrado.

Appreciate the amount of attention to details and various considerations in your implementation. The solution is more sophisticated than I originally thought. After all, your picture shows it does effectively deters the slush from entering ino the cabin.

Still it is hard to believe this kind of oversight from Lexus because a lot of details and thoughtfulness have been included in the design of NX. Besides, this is definitely not the first time for Toyota and Lexus to design seals/weather strips. Seals and weather strips have never been a problem for them.

Another thing which baffles me is it seems there is no one complaining the dirt entering NX from the Japanese community (read MinKara Carview). Nor any DIY for perfecting the gaps between the edge of the door and the black plastic moulding.

Another NX owner (alfaromeo3) commented his wife's Highlander seems to have a similar design and yet has better seal. Out of curiosity, I took pictures of highlander and NX from the dealerships recently....

Pictures shows they do have very similar construction for the door trims and rear wheel openings. The construction looks definitely more polished and refined in NX. The wheel well front guard is positioned a bit forward in NX than in Highlander.

Why doesn't Highlander have this dirt/slush/mud intrusion problem?

Last picture -- note when the rear door of the Highlander is closed, you will see the door has gaps exposed as the front portion of the wheel well consists of two plastic mouldings with rubber sandwiched in between (highlighted in red). Really strange to see no issue with Highlander in this setting if NX does have this issue.

 

^^^ Nice pics and good info AndyL. Maybe Japan hasn't had our winter!

What I can say for a fact is the NX's doors protrude downward beyond the rubber seal which is the cause of the issue. It's not so much that snow/dirt comes into the cabin, but that there is an excessive amount stuck to the bottom door. You can see the low protrusion of the NX's doors exposed to the elements from the second pic in the first post above.

 

Some areas in Japan, for example, Hokkaido, have lots of snow and some parts of Hokkaido have as freezing temperatures as in Canada. However, you are quite right. The difference is they don't have that much amount of slush developed. They put only little salt and sand on the roads in winter and snow chains are allowed in some cases.

 

I think I could confirm 14' & 15' Toyota Highlander has the same poor door seal problem as in NX -- on Toyota Nation forum, the owners talked about it since last month.

Only post #67 -#81 of the following thread -- they have gathered all other issues in the same thread.
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/33...-thread-5.html


Glad that CorradoMR2 has presented this DIY fix. Probably the fix applies to14' and 15' Highlander as well.

 

I think it really sux that you need to do this kind of fix on a car that cost this much....

 

Hi folks,

Just wanted to follow up a few weeks later now, to see how the suggested fix by corradoMR2 has been holding up.

Any information, good or bad would be great.
Thanks!