Poor ventilation design - and a fix!
#1
Poor ventilation design - and a fix!
For the second time in a few weeks, my wife's RX400h's HVAC fan started making a lot of noise, especially at higher speeds.
Lo and behold, when checking the air filter it was full of leaves and/or acorns! I'm talking handfuls of the stuff and of course many fell into the fan and had to be extracted by hand (at the cost of bleeding knuckles!)
At first I couldn't figure out how acorns and whole leaves could make it past the vents:
But look at the huge gaps near the hood hinges on either side, all the junk gets sucked in there:
Being on vacation at the cabin in the woods I had limited options, but found an old piece of metal screen:
And here's the screen being fitted, hopefully this will help keep the leaves out:
It is disappointing, though, that Lexus would have such a poor design. My Jeeps had secondary screens to keep all this stuff out, at 1/2 the price...
Lo and behold, when checking the air filter it was full of leaves and/or acorns! I'm talking handfuls of the stuff and of course many fell into the fan and had to be extracted by hand (at the cost of bleeding knuckles!)
At first I couldn't figure out how acorns and whole leaves could make it past the vents:
But look at the huge gaps near the hood hinges on either side, all the junk gets sucked in there:
Being on vacation at the cabin in the woods I had limited options, but found an old piece of metal screen:
And here's the screen being fitted, hopefully this will help keep the leaves out:
It is disappointing, though, that Lexus would have such a poor design. My Jeeps had secondary screens to keep all this stuff out, at 1/2 the price...
#4
I guess when a bunch of angry critters show up they'll know for sure
I haven't had any problems with stuff getting stuck under there. I clean the top screen when I'm checking under the hood. Acorns are a little large to slip underneath without 'assistance.'
I haven't had any problems with stuff getting stuck under there. I clean the top screen when I'm checking under the hood. Acorns are a little large to slip underneath without 'assistance.'
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