Dirt And Glass Chips

[LexRexBlue]

In an effort to clear a parking lot of dirt and glass chips a maintenance person blew the dirt and glass into the cars. Not only did my car look like a dump truck dropped a load of dirt on the top, but when I opened it up everything in the car was covered with what I thought was just dirt. As I brushed some off the seat my hand was cut. I found tiny specks of glass. Since all the windows and roof were closed I assume it entered via the numerous vents. Do you think the hybrid system was compromised? How should I get it out of the system?

[katzjamr]

i would document this with pictures, have the car detailed by the dealer and check for any scratches the glass may have made inside the car, and it would be the dealers call on the condition of the hybrid system. how willing has the car lot been in taking responsibility? do you think this came in thru the big vents under the rear seat?

[RX400h]

Because of the glass, I would use a vacuum on virtually everything that even looks to have debris on it. Depending on the severity of the damage, this sounds like it could be a very expensive mistake by the parking lot cleaner. Good luck.

[Rx330driver]

go back to the parking lot and seriously complain. i would be soooo mad. How could they even come in through the vents...that a pretty long path. the cleaner would have had to keep blowing it directly to the front of your car...

maybe this is a lesson to keep the recirculation button on before turning off the engine. but then again, wouldnt the cabin filter have stopped them from coming in...? check the filter in the glove compartment to see if it had dirt/glass. if i doesnt, then it might have came through the battery vents. i wouldnt think that they are harmed in any way, they are probably protected by some form of box

edit: meant to say wouldnt be harmed in any ways

[jerryray]

go back to the parking lot and seriously complain. i would be soooo mad. How could they even come in through the vents...that a pretty long path. the cleaner would have had to keep blowing it directly to the front of your car...

maybe this is a lesson to keep the recirculation button on before turning off the engine. but then again, wouldnt the cabin filter have stopped them from coming in...? check the filter in the glove compartment to see if it had dirt/glass. if i doesnt, then it might have came through the battery vents. i would think that they are harmed in any way, they are probably protected by some form of box

The Cabin filter should have trapped anything that large.

Some windows must have been opened..

[LexRexBlue]

I am a teacher and it was the school parking lot. The custodian did it. Everyone was hopping mad. My 400h was closed up and locked, so the question becomes, how could all that get inside the car? It has to be the vents all over the place. The dust would glisten. I had the car cleaned, vacumed from top to bottom, every surface. I went back over the surfaces and leather. I'm hesitant to go to the dealer, because wouldn't they consider that not Lexus' fault??? So far, the car is driving fine. I'm just concerned.

[Rx330driver]

its not their fault that your car got wrecked, but it is a potential design flaw. i would bring it to them, so that they could so a test drive, maybe checked the battery. Well i wouldnt stress either, bring it in when you do your service.

[SW03ES]

I don't see how thats possible, are you POSITIVE no windows were open, even a little?

[LexRexBlue]

The windows, doors and roof were all closed. I know that they blew the stuff into the cars so my only thought was through the vents. Other cars also had dust inside--bmws, jaguars, etc. However I seemed to have the most so I figured it was those extra vents for the hybrid. I wish it all didn't happen. It was a mess. I'd cut my hands from trying to use the steering wheel, etc.

[RX400h]

This reminds me of an amusing (but true story) that happened many years ago. The parking lot of the company for which I worked, was "cleaned" every Tuesday at 8:00 - a time when the parking lot was 80% full. The "cleaning" method used by the Mexican immigrants was to walk around the lot with a leaf blower, blasting sand onto every vehicle within its range. Of course, many people, including I had washed their cars over the weekend and come Tuesday late morning, had sand-covered vehicles to get into later on. Eventually, side windows would develop scratches from the sand getting embedded in between the glass seal and the glass.

Well, as any car-respecting person would do, I complained to the person who normally dealt with the building owner. (our receptionist). When her boss, the CFO of our company found out, he blasted me, saying "Nobody cares about getting a little sand on their cars, so drop it!"

I immediately sent an email to everyone, asking them if they were concerned at all. 25 people responded and their replies were immediately forwarded to the CFO. In addition, I took pictures of the scratched glass in one of my cars and told the recptionist that if the "cleaners" don't move their cleaning time to when the parking lot was unpopulated (like on the weekends or super-early in the morning), we would be asking for money to replace car windows.

Needless-to-say, the CFO was furious, but after all was said and done, the sand-blasting was done on Saturdays. The lesson learned? Be persistent to ensure that the type of incident you described is not repeated. Don't back down. I was an 8-yesr employee who was up against a 2-year CFO. He was the one who backed down. The voice of the "crowd" was just too loud for him to ignore.

Dave