Check for trees growing in your Taco

So, in every effort to keep my '09 Taco looking good, I was wiping out the door jambs yesterday after a wash and found something surprising. As I was wiping the rubber fender seal (just forward of the driver's door), I heard a slight "crunch." Out of morbid curiosity, I pulled the seal back to find the fender stuffed full of leaves! I've had the truck right at a year, and yes, I do have a Live Oak tree near my driveway. I routinely pick leaves from around the wiper arms, but was very surprised to see such a large amount of them jammed into the fenders. After raising the hood, I realized that there is a very large gap between the body and fenders right around the hood hinges. I can only assume that with forward speed, the air passing between the fender and hood forces leaves back and down into the cavity. The shop vac sucked most of them out, and I loosed the ones that had become jammed in between the body and fender with a plastic knife (don't want to scratch the paint).

My main concern is future corrosion. The leaves were all soaked through in both fenders, and were in various stages of decomposition. Without removing the leaves, I'm sure I'd be seeing signs of extreme corrosion in these areas after the paint warranty was expired.

 

I'm not laughing....I actually DID have trees growing in the same spot in my Maxima!

A red maple overlooks my driveway... I opened the passenger door one day and there was a bright green seedling peeking out of the door jam. I made a 'rake' from rubber coated coathanger and pulled out about 3" of muck and it didn't feel like it had a bottom.

Put a hose in it and washed...and washed....and washed. I couldn't believe how much rich topsoil accumulated underneath the car on both sides! The front window cowl drains water through that area so washing it out better be OK

Moral of story: clean that little cavity out regularly. It has way too-small drain holes and they better not clog or water and muck can't wash out. Leaves (and maple seeds) get in there, rot, and clog it up!

 

Tree huggers!

 

Pine needles are the worst. Those things can find there way into everything.

 

Garage FTW

 

Your garage has a taco growing in it!

 

My garage has and MDX in it and the wife would kill me for even suggesting that she park it in the driveway.

 

Do you have a double garage? If so, you can fit 2 cars / trucks in there. A lot of my neighbors haven't figured this out yet either.

 

Other way around. Taco has a garage (instead of tree) growing inside the fender.

 

I have a one car/one tools and sporting goods garage. I have no place to put my $10,000 in Scuba gear and probably another $5000 in tools so really its only a 1 car garage

 

i have a double and only the harley goes in there.
I have all of the other stuff in there also, riding lawn mower, snow blower, work bench, tool boxes, half dozen bikes, shelves.
no room for vehicles - haha

now that you know the hiding spot , you can check it more ofthen for new trees

 

could be the wind, etc.?? but where I live 1st thought would be pack rats!

 

About a week after I bought my truck I couldn't figure out why there were ants all over it and they kept coming back even after washing it. Turns out that cavity was full of crud and there was an ant "nest" in there. The previous owner parked it outside and had a heavily wooded lot so lots of leaves fell on it.

I vacuumed most of it out with the shop vac and then blasted the rest out with the nozzle on my water hose. Now they are clean as a whistle and don't get dirty anymore because I park in the garage. I actually avoid parking under trees, all that sap and stuff is bad for the paint.