Why does this piece under the driver's door fall off?

4rpr15,

My curiousity got the best of me, so I went to my garage and got on my knees to look.

My guess is that it is drain hole covers (3 EA door) to drain water from rain.
The black cover snaps into the top of the hole, but the bottom is still open to
let rain water drain.
Looks better than just having drain holes on other makes of cars.
Though, I doubt that anyone really cares where no one really looks!

I did send in this pic to ask what this bracket is that sticks out of the
back fender. Some sort of aerodynamic part? No one really came back with an
answer.

stt

 

Maybe just pull them off and store them? Strikes me as something that'll just promote clogging inside the door anyway. Or does it look weird when removed?

 

Yes, I knock the center drivers side off every time I wash the car. The first time it happened I found it laying on the ground and no idea where it came from, so I put it in the console and sure enough, a week later I located the spot and put it back on.

 

maybe ask the dealer to look at it. sounds like the mold came out too small.

 

there's a whole thread on this, no final outcome, iirc, but many agreed on aerodynamics, or deflectors for the radar.

 

i suppose going through puddles might be a bad idea.

 

Super Glue.

 

Don't want to damn up the drainage.

 

I know. Just apply a tiny small tidbit.

What did the woman do who had her tow-hook cover fall off in the car wash?

 

I think she had to get the proper detail from the dealer (the one they found was the wrong one).

 

The doors are supposed to have drain holes at the bottom. Maybe someone with a 2016 can check their doors for these plugs, but it's possible that they're supposed to be removed by the dealer during pre-delivery inspection.

 

They're called "Dust Proof Seals". So evidently not drain plugs, but to keep the dust and debris out. Not sure why the holes would be there in the first place though.

 

Is there a drainage hole in that plastic piece? There should be, if they're not just some sort of temporary shipping piece, meant to be removed before sale.

 

Where did the image come from, and is that from the pre-delivery inspection procedure or the door panel removal procedure? i.e., are they supposed to be there?

 

It's from Toyota "Technical information system" https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/appmanager/t3/ti?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ti_home_page&SMENC=ISO-8859-1&SMLOCALE=US-EN&SMAUTHREASON=0&SMAGENTNAME=%24SM%24mT%252bGLraBu9CwUVnZg4mEDzB2kysT90hgbwsWgdZzNOc%253d&TARGET=%24SM%24https%3A%2F%2Ftechinfo.toyota.com%2F

I was taking the door panel off to replace the speakers (and some other mods in other parts of the vehicle), so I bought access to it for two days ($15). They are supposed to be there. As mendel-leisk suggested, there is, indeed, an opening behind the plastic "flap" that lightly covers the opening--evidently to allow water to drip down while keeping the "dust" out.

 

Thanks so much! Mystery solved!