I get leaves in the fall in my engine Compartment. While it's usually easy to clean them out, I get an accumulation of leaves in the engine compartment in the corners by the hood hinges I have tried shop vacuuming them out with little success. Any suggestions?

Any tips? Thanks, Paul

 

You may have better luck moving the leaves out with an air hose by pushing them out rather than vacuuming them in.

 

I get this too. Badly. On either side just in front of the hood hinges just in front of them. My issue is these little maple tree seed spinners. These. Nightmare when they get in there.


First of all, I’m scared I’m going to scissor off a finger down there with the hood hinges adjacent so ... there is that. Care is in order.

I try the shop vac with a narrow nozzle. Sort of doesn’t work great at sucking them up.

So my solution is using my hose with a nozzle set to a sharp stream. Squirt it down there directly at them.. It washes the gunk through the place where it gets caught down wherever into the fender. Then I cant see the leaves and debris. So I feel good about it.

Now -- where does it go? IDK. Hopefully it’s not piling up into a pile of decomposed dirt in between the inner fender and outer fender which will then corrode whatever is down there. This does slightly stress me out.

 

Yep, have all kind of leaves here in Canada, real PITA to remove.
Make sure that that plastic area below windshield has good drain as I've seen a couple of reports of ECU connectors getting flooded. The hinge/fender area is a pain too.

 

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I too have tried a shop vac with a small flexible nozzle and it gets some out but it clogs quickly

 

Found some pics of the relevant area. Drivers side and passenger side. There’s no where for debris to go once it falls down.

This has been bothering me as when debris builds up, corrosion starts. I could imagine a big pile of dirt/mud down here, and then corrosion (on aluminum, different from rust, but it is still within the realm of possibility)

Definitely could be a big pile of schmutz down here after 5 years. Anyone remember the dirt stuff that builds up in the rear wheel arches of L322 and causes rust?
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Passenger side...