Pollen filter and canopy/tub sealing - D40

[burgo]

Krafty
There is 4 on each side, one above each mounting support for the side track.
I had to remove the track to get to them and administer the foam.
Remove the track, lay on your back in the tub and look up. At first you will think it can't be a hole as it is TOO BIG but drop a small weight on a line through & you'll see.
Hay!! if you're getting water up that high "I wanna watch"
Rd's

 

[KraftyPg]

Ok obviously they aren't the same holes. The ones I'm fixing are where the front panel of the tub meets the side and just above the front cargo rail. Mine are just an example of mass production not being always right. My front tub panel is actually about 1-2mm lower on the drivers side than it is on the passenger side and this then creates gaps where it meets the sides. An inspection over the pits just after I got it proved the bottom was sealed but the top is just one of those things. The water that goes in there is rain water when on the road not water from puddling hopping.

 

[Old.Tony]

I wonder why we couldn't make a rubber(ish) collector to draw the air from that vent (perhaps replacing the rubber flap, or fitting beneath it) and then using flexible pipe to run that air into the tub, with something like a reed valve to prevent air flowing back from the tub to the cabin (eg when a door is opened).

I'm not sure I'd do it, it could upset the air conditioning balance.

 

[KraftyPg]

I can't find the thread where this was done, can't even remember what the thread was about. But considering just how many gaps there are in the rear of the tub I can't see air flow coming back from the tub being a huge issue unless it was a completely sealed unit and that would just take too much effort.

The vents at the rear of the hut are going to bring some air back into the hut, the normal ventilation of the ute will do the same so unless your running the a/c or recirculate for it's entire time the air quality isn't going to be an issue. A/C's aren't made to run on recirculate all the time so they too will bring fresh air into the cabin and push it air through the appropriate vents.

If anyone is really that worried about how hot the air in their canopy is put a fan in the thing, can even go as far as making it a solar fan that runs whenever the sun is providing enough power. Would take all of 10 mins to adapt and 10 mins to install. Until then as long as there is air flow you'll find most of the heat issues solved.

 

[Jason]

This thread has gone that far off topic I have renamed it.

 

[Leprechaun]

Plumbing your cabin A/C to the tub through the cabin exhaust vent is just plain stupid. I doubt it would have effect on adding positive pressure never mind any cooling capacity.

 

[Old.Tony]

^^ oops!

I finally got a shot of those pollen filters at the dealer's, they moved them - while waiting for my car, I found 'em and took this shot.

Pollen filters after use on display at dealer

I'll go rip my new ones out in a little while and take some nice pics with a real camera (on a tripod too, I think)

 

[base_28]

cheers for the pix of the pollen filters old tony. i have rung the dealer i picked up my ute through 2 times and still have not recieved a return call, maybe cause i get it serviced at a different dealer. did they end up charging u for them or fitted them free ??.
also a idea for sealing the large gap between the tailgate and tray is using some marine carpet on the tray floor cut perfect to the tray end, then fit another piece of carpet full width across the tailgate and have it about 200mm longer than the tailgate so it slides down under the carpet on the floor of the bed. also by sliding the black rubber protectors of the floor tie down system as far to the rear as possible it makes the tailgate carpet easily slide under the floor carpet without fouling up. i have done this and to date 7 months have no dust entering the tray. i will take photos if anyone is interested in tryin this.

 

[KraftyPg]

Plumbing your cabin A/C to the tub through the cabin exhaust vent is just plain stupid. I doubt it would have effect on adding positive pressure never mind any cooling capacity.

I don't think the original poster said much about pressure but did say they could feel cooler air when they opened the tailgate. I wouldn't have said the idea was stupid as such but alot more effort than it needs perhaps.

Thanks for the pic Tony if I ever get around to doing something about these filters I'm sure they will be easy to replicate, or maybe even acquire from elsewhere.

 

[Old.Tony]

I've got one better. Here's step-by-step with pictures on removal and replacement.

Step 1 - Pull the rubber door trim towards the rear of the car (left yellow circle in picture) and remove (unclip) the plastic cover (right yellow circle). You need to do this to get to the screw underneath. Click here for the image.

Step 2 - Remove the screw that you can see in this image, then remove the other 4 screws - you'll see the top two in the previous photo, and the bottom two are below the glovebox door. Click here for the image.

Step 3 - Opening the filter door. Circled is the 8mm hex-head nut that holds the cover closed. Remove this, then swing the door up and the retaining lugs will let go allowing you to remove the door completely. Click here for image 3.

Step 4 - With the door removed, you should see the two filters sitting beside each other. They are completely flexible, but you should take care not to bend the sides too much - you will discover why when you are trying to push them back in and they just give way! click here for image 4.

Step 5 - With the filters removed - or a new D40 - this is what you should see. Click here for image 5.

Step 6 - It's not actually a step, it's a high resolution image of the two filters sitting on my sheepskin seat cover with a metric tape measure between so you can get an idea of scale. Click here for image 6. Notice the "Air Flow" on the side - don't put these in upside down!

Step 7 - The first filter must be slid into the opening and then you need to slide it to the left, as you can see in image 7. Gently push the other filter in, taking care not to crush it - it's very bendy.

That's it, put the cover back on, do up the 8mm bolt without too much force. I partially put the top right screw back in the glovebox first, to hold that side up, while I put the tricksy screw in on the left side, re-clipped the cover and gently pressed the door seal back down.

Put the other screws in, go around and gently make sure they're all home properly, and the job is done! Now you can put all the junk back in the glovebox and close it before the missus sees it!

 

[KraftyPg]

Ok so now for the big question, how much difference do they make.

 

[Old.Tony]

Haven't been out in the dust - we've had little but rain here at the moment. Got my doubts that they'd stop the smoke from the Camry in front, or do a lot to improve the aroma behind a B-Double heading to Inghams.

Having a close look at them, I think they're definitely designed to stop pollen. Large particles, so dust will probably be caught too.

If you made up some flexible plastic frames, you could probably do just as well cutting vacuum cleaner bags into place, and maybe do a better job at filtering too, but I'm not convinced of the need to go that far!

 

[KraftyPg]

If you could find a filter that could keep the smell out you'd be on a winner.

I was looking at the pics and they do look like it wouldn't take much to replicate given the job they preform. As much as it's been said that Nissan are tight arses in not installing them you have to wonder what the real reason is, it's not like they'd pay more than about $5 for them so I can't see cost being the only issue. The fact that they suggest they go in at 20K and then replaced every 20K after that seems to suggest they should be there. Then again you also have to wonder how many 20K + Navs are getting around without the filters. Wonder if they do the same with the Pathy's.

 

[Pete22]

Ok so now for the big question, how much difference do they make.

My experience is that they make a big difference when is bull dust country. Certainly kept my cabin clean on my recent West to East crossing of Aus through the middle. I got mine from Nizzbits who visits this forum. Send him an email to check his prices before you buy: [email protected]

 

[KraftyPg]

My experience is that they make a big difference when is bull dust country. Certainly kept my cabin clean on my recent West to East crossing of Aus through the middle. I got mine from Nizzbits who visits this forum. Send him an email to check his prices before you buy: [email protected]

Going by the images tony produced and the measure tape I reckon I can find suitable material and fit it for about $7, were yours cheaper than that? Despite them coming from Nissan they aren't made out of anything special and from what I've seen are common to every nearly Nissan model as well as other brands. As suggested above Vac bags would suffice given the job they do.

 

[KraftyPg]

While this may be met with suggestions that it's not right and not going to work properly I'm going to write it down anyway.

After speaking to a mate who spends his days fixing cooling and heating units for large vehicles we came up with a possible solution to these filters. If it works it's going to be a cheap and viable solution and for those who don't plan to get Nissan to do their servicing could mean they don't have to worry about buying the overpriced paper from Nissan every 20K or whatever it is.

Tomorrow we are going to do the air test on several pieces of foam based material, one to ensure the through put of air to the vehicle is still sufficient and two to test what grades of foam work the best. Using the same principle as a vacuum cleaner we are starting out with foam similar to a vac filter, it will actually be foam scrounged from motherboard boxes and the like since I've got heaps of this laying around.

I've also got other density and more rigid pieces of foam based stuff which is used to ship other pc parts which we will test in the same manner to see which is better. Because the main job of these filters is to stop particulates reaching the a/c fan as long as the foam holes are not too large and it stays in shape it should work as a substitute.

My mate has done similar on vehicles using bits of stuff he's had lying around as a temporary measure but see no reason as to why if done right this same method couldn't be done as permanent measure. And for me at least even if the home made filters only last 10K it's not a huge deal given that every pc I buy and sell comes with oodles of this sort of stuff the customer doesn't want, for the sake of 20 mins work I could change the filter daily if it was that bad but I doubt it will be.

 

[Old.Tony]

If you could manufacture it well enough, you could make these washable, so one set should last the life of your vehicle (barring damage from problematic insertion or large objects travelling at speed like broken turbo charger blades, stray bullets or meteorites).

The foam used to support motherboards tends to deteriorate after a while, so that would be a disposable unit. However, there are heavy cloths used as dust filters (I think Filter Queen used this) and, stretched over (and epoxied to) a flexible plastic framework - it needs to bend, but still needs to be firm, so a plastic like you'd find in an ice cream container would work although even that gets brittle over time and exposure to some chemicals.

Perhaps creating the framework out of high density packing foam and gluing the cloth membrane over the top?

I won't need to do this for some time, but it's a novel idea. I wonder if this could be adapted some way (eg in the air intake) for other models that don't have pollen filters?

 

[KraftyPg]

Motherboard foam might be a little too weak but it's a starting point because it's the softest and smallest I have handy right now, but there are different grades of motherboard foam.

The stuff I'm thinking will be the best is actually used for shipping raw components it's thicker and more rigid so if wont need any sort of framework to hold it together but it will be a matter of how much air flow it has. I'll actually have to cut this stuff down if it's viable but its not a problem because like all foam it multiplies around this place and I'm forever throwing it out.

If you consider so many filters are only ever made of paper or foam of some sort there is thousands of adaptions that could be made with such things. You'd be silly not to test it properly first but who pays for genuine vac filters these days, I know I haven't paid for one since I got the vac for my shed it's motherboard foam all the way for my vac.

 

[Leprechaun]

You can buy filter material from any A/C supplier (lovelocks etc) it's very cheap and washable.

 

[KraftyPg]

Yep and some vac shops have similar, although theirs are usually cut to size rather than some a/c shops being able to cut it.

My main idea for this (apart from being a tightarse) is to make use of all this foam, if this works I have enough foam lying around to make about 30 of these things and the stuff just keeps multiplying so I'll never be without one.