Dirt on sills under doors

Actually lighter colors are better with day to day road grime type dirtiness; however, dark mud or red clay type soils will show up better on white. It just really depends on your local environment. Around here most dirt is a dark white to brownish color (caliche) so our 06 in driftwood metallic does really well at looking clean even though it isn't. My white CMax just gets duller looking while our dark blue metallic Outback starts looking dirty almost immediately after a wash. LOL

Generally the higher the speeds traveled, the more grime will work its way into the sills.

 

Part of making the car a bit quieter?

 

was on gen 3, glad you shared, was hoping this had improved. Its part of the wash job on gen 3, especially blizzard pearl around door jambs, it seems to show up more

 

I have noticed this dirt in the door sill and jam issue too.

With Chevy C4 year Corvettes, they also had that issue. The aftermarket came up with a secondary weatherstrip.
Not sure if a second ws is adaptable to a Prius....you can try.

Else nature of the beast, we all just have to wipe those sills/ jams clean

 

The rain water/dirt that runs down the window, drains into the door, then out the bottom drain holes in the door, out on the door sills. Not much you can do about it.

 

That's exactly what I'm saying...

Think about it, how likely it is for outside water to squeeze into the narrow gap under the door vs water running down the side of the car. If you look under the doors, they all have drain holes for water. If they didn't, the doors would fill up with water.

 

I'm glad you brought this up, PriusRos. It's odd. I've never had this happen on any other Toyota product I've owned, or any car for that matter. I also have a fairly large amount of dirt being thrown up on the lower body panels, behind each (Toyo) tire. Looking forward to getting Mudguards when available. (This is after a light rain.)

 

What is that lower piece... for "ground effects?" Sure attracts a lot of dirt. The upper door sill is clean.

I keep hitting my foot/ankle on it when exiting the car. You can see how far it extends out. I have to take an extra second, and remember it's there. (Along with mudguards, I'm looking for those stick-on metal door sill protectors. None available yet.)

 

These are Toyota OEM "Euro" Mud Flaps:
2016 Toyota Prius Mud guards and Mud Flaps and Splash Guards | JuicedHybrid

I think that dirt on the door sills is coming from the front tires. The dirt goes right through that crack underneath the door.

Experiment completed.

I washed everything, and got all the door sills clean. (Water does not drain down through the doors. Where did that idea come from? The seal is tight around the windows on my Gen4.)

Light rain stopped last night. I found a wet road in the park with several puddles. Drove on that road, and sure enough, the inside door sills are wet and dirty again. The water/dirt is coming up off the front tires, and going through the crack under the door.

None of my 3 other Toyota's did this. Nor my Honda. What's up with this Prius?!?

 

There are drain holes on the bottom of the door (at least on Gen-III). I get water draining after washing the car.

 

On our 3rd gen it gets grubby in that area. I think worst case would be when it hasn't rained in a while, there's a lot of soot and brake dust on the roads. Maybe a matter of degree, more pronounced on 4th gen? But yeah, 3rd gen is not impervious to this: any time I wash the car, albeit infrequently, the sills are kinda grungy.

 

How the hell can Toyota make a car, that let's water inside the door?! I never heard of such a thing. I'd be afraid to pull the door panel off, and see what's in there! Rust???

 

Most cars have drain holes; the seal between the door glass and the door isn't perfect and if you didn't have a drain, you'd get a bit of standing water accumulating in the bottom of the door.

 

All cars get water inside the door. Owner's Manuals typically caution you to ensure the drain holes at the bottom of door are clear, whenever you're washing the car. Door windows are the reason: a rain soaked window can be rolled down, taking water in, nothing can be done about it, except to ensure the water doesn't get into electrics, get hung up somewhere, is able to drain easily.

 

Makes sense. But I never noticed any of my previous cars draining water under the doors. Now I gotta go outside, and lay on the ground, and find those door holes!

This is what I found, guys. The hole is shaped like a slit. One slit under the front and back door. (Those two black rubber things on each side of the slit are little cushions, I guess.)



Paul, from juicedhybrid emailed me, and said they will adding more accessories for the 2016 Prius hatchback next week. Including door sill protectors, and mud guards/splash guards.