So I thought I'd post what I suspect could be an uncommon spring maintenance task I do on my vehicles. And no, it is not replacing the blinker fluid.

I have several tamarack (western larch) trees next to where I park my vehicles, which for those of you who don't know, is a deciduous conifer; i.e. it drops its needles every year. I also have an ash tree on the other side of my driveway that has these really small leaves.

As such I can get a lot of needles and little leaves in the door jams and under the air grill at the base of the windshield.

Yesterday I removed the grill on my 1982 Honda Prelude and was able to remove 2-3 large handfuls of needles. These if left too long will start to decompose into soil and trap moisture causing rust. You also can get reduced air into your HVAC system. I also used bamboo scewers and my remote grabby tool to reach into all of the corners under the grill and in the door jams to get out any needles and leaves that could be blocking drain holes.

I'll be doing this to the Blazer in a week or so. For the Blazer you can take out the plastic screws on the grill but you might have to replace them with new ones from the auto-parts store.

I'm also attaching pictures of from when I replaced the blower motor and found the whole AC condenser blocked by needles.



Blower motor out and the temperature control module removed



The needles pulled out from the blower motor cavity

 

Wow, that is crazy.
We have a locust tree that has hideous small leaves and long, coffee straw like stems. I have cleaned the gutters twice in our house, and haven't even lived here a year.
Definitely nice to park it inside...