Are your car adapted for desert conditions?

[Manicminer]

"Cars not car"

Just curious really, I have a good pal who moved to Abu Dhabi 6 years back and apart from learning the hard way not to park his car out of shade in the midday sun he tells me he doesn't really have any problems with cars out there despite the hot and sandy conditions. They're running a LR Discovery 3 as thier current family car and it does a fine job.

Anyway, have any of you found the sand causing havok blocking filters or cars needing more frequent oil changes etc? It strikes me that cars out there might actually have an easier life with not often starting from really cold temps and not having corrosion issues we suffer here.

I did Google a bit but there don't seem to be any tales of sand and heat being much of an issue

[jason90]

I think you would be surprised at the potential damage/issues the sand and heat can cause

Filters do get clogged with sand, as long as you replace/clean them its not really an issue

If you leave a car parked out it does nt take too long for all the rubber seals to perish, Land Rovers are particularly prone to this

Cars here generally have a harder life than there counterparts in cooler climates

[Manicminer]

Is it just a case of whipping the air filter out and blowing it clean with compressed air every few months?

[jason90]

Exactly, depending how much you go out in the desert

The other thing to regularly blow out is the ac filter, on the LR3 its behind the glove box, can make a huge difference to how effective the ac is

[Manicminer]

Ta very much