I live in a seasonal city with snow and road salt every winter. But when the temp is right I go spray off the salt to prevent the chance of rust. I have done a search on this topic but nothing answers my question (ah yes, I did a search). So to those of you who encounter winters or know the build quality of the mighty Max, should I worry about corrosion cuz I want keep my Max as long as I can. BTW it runs and looks excellent with 81k!! AND Thanks, and I've learned a lot about my Max from you guys!! If my car can hold up, maybe I'll get some mods...

 

I wouldn't worry about it, I live in Chicago, and I haven't had any probs with my '97 Max with 62K, In fact Nissan in general does a very good job of keeping their cars from Rusting.

BriGuyMax

 

Just did a search on this topic, and not much info on corrosion on this board. Has anyone else added any additional corrosion protection underneath their Max? My recently purchased 99 SE was from the North Carolina area and is pretty clean right now. But the Ohio weather where I live (snow/salt) will change that shortly, I'm afraid. Anyone know if Nissan tailors weather protection of their cars to the areas of the US they will be delivered to (i.e.- would this Max have any more protection if it was originally titled in Ohio)? Thanks.

 

There is NO difference from Nissan as far as coatings go depending on where a car is shipped.

The dealer might have supposedly tacked on another "undercoating" add-on at the time of sale. These "undercoatings" are usually crap and might actually make things worse by eventually partially flaking/peeling off and holding/hiding sand/salt/moisture.

The best and only thing you can do besides moving to Arizona is to manually wash your car as often as you can in the winter. Use a high-pressure spray underneath and run enough h20 so that the water runs clear. Most people just get it wet which makes it worse. Automatic carwashes don't do diddly for undercarriage washing or getting into crevices.

Also go over the underside completely at least once a year and look for rust/missing paint/undercoating/chips. When you find it, and you will, remove what you can with sandpaper or a wire brush. Prime it w/ high quality stuff. Rustoleum Professional primers are great. Wait 1 hour. Paint it with some dark colored heavy duty enamel. My favorite is Rustoleum Professional "Hammered Metal" finish in black. Very thick and fairly flexible. Dries to driveable-hard in about 12-24 hours. Try not to drive on gravel for 2-3 days.

The rear beam on our Maxima's is notorious for rot. Esp around the welds in the center of the beam.

If you plan to keep your car, doing this pain in the a$$ job isn't too bad once a year....

-RMB

 

I live in Québec, and it seems that the goverment finds it funny to spray salt, rock and calcium all over the palce. The original owner of my car got it rust-proofed, the sooner you do it the better( dont get the oil stuff, drying is better). If you have a real winter, when the car stays out side it's better.

A few neibours down from me a guy that owns a 95 GLE and I have never seen somone be as careless with a car as him. He has specks on his rear trunk, the rear window division pillars, and flaking around the rear weel arches, and his paint must have lost it's shine a few years ago. It'hood and bumper looks like someone had fun with a shotgun? It's just an example of the worst case senario, do not take this as a reference!!! Mine is the same year and aside of a few chips up front and on the rocker pannel it's clean.