scooby68

Sorry to hear that.......for short hops, a ghetto repair if its done right.....and mind you, I don't like to say that.....I would love to find the time to buy my mig welder, drop out the front end and do it right.......but if your only hopping around town for a year or two then dumping the 14 year ol' then WTF have you got to lose....my decision has been made,.........the 5 speed tranny went on mine with 230 k on it, double whammied and I'm heart broken :{ Good luck. V

max ride 41

iTrader: (4)

dude, that looks really bad. you might want to consider doing at least the lower support. i had my body shop weld on a quarter inch thick piece of steel which he wrapped around the entire support area and welded it with a triple weld and 4 coats of heavy duty outside grille paint. then 3 coats of clear. get that looked at before you hear the engine scraping.

brazenbunnies

Sounds like good advice. It seems odd that such a well-made car would have such an obvious design flaw. I wonder if the crux of the problem is that the engine support uses a different metal than the radiator core support. I could how see the resulting electrolysis in addition to a dash or two of road salt would cause this corrosion.

allensteiner21

iTrader: (6)

no problems like that here on the left coast :P

Phaedrus220

iTrader: (4)

I dropped off my 99 at the dealer affiliated auto body shop this am....one day job, about 660 cash for the oem part and labor. Considering I've seen this repair costing ~800 for some, I feel a bit better. Long Island climate + 190k = rust to the point of cracking that metal into swiss cheese pieces.

IlyaK

iTrader: (47)

78k on my 99 and mine has some basic surface rust that all NE cars have. No issues.

Jake95maxxi

So.. where can i find just the lower support.. ebay has it at 200$ right now

Possiby cheaper???

petro2342

Ordered mine couple weeks ago from Dave B. for $156 shipped. Great deal if you ask me. Ganna do it this weekend. Hopefully all goes well.

atriuum

iTrader: (3)

I was flushing the radiator when I noticed this mother. I felt so proud to replace the thermostat assy, and then this bull. Mine is detached from thet two-bolt cross link, rotted to hell. I'm on the island too. Which shop did you use Phaedrus220?

Phaedrus220

iTrader: (4)

I used Performance Auto body in Smithtown, just behind the Smithtown nissan dealer - highly recommended, their price was at or below the average cost I saw posted by other members.

They are affiliated with, but independent of the dealer. I am wary of the dealership, if only because way back when, they gave me the key value clutch job without suggesting other options. There is a similar affiliated company that does custom / performance motor work, but I haven't used them.

here's the link to their website:

http://www.performanceautobodyny.com/


As I indicated in a previous post, it was a one-day job, impressive for an auto body shop. At least one employee has a 4gen, and they had just recently done that job for him.

ajm8127

iTrader: (8)

I have 105k with only surface rust in Pittsburgh. Just remember to spray the salt off the new one. It's something that's easy to miss when washing your car, but spraying all of that caked on salt off periodically really helps. At least use a heated under body wash in the winter.

nsnrider

iTrader: (59)

FYI, your motor will not fall to the ground if the lower radiator support rust through. I just did this on a 99 maxima with 175k miles, the radiator support was COMPLETELY gone, engine was not on floor like other suggested. The motor is held on by two motor mounts on the side to the rails and a rear mount that's connected to the center engine support which is bolted to the rear suspension cross member. I'm not saying to drive on it that way as it makes for a horrible ride, just saying you won't have your motor fall to the ground.

I wouldn't spend more than $500 for the replacement of lower radiator support.

G/L

insane imports

Wow you guys are complaning about a small part that rusts out it could be worse, at least our wheel wells dont rust out or a pillars. Also the 95-99ish sentras and 200sx's i think had worst rust in the radiator support area than we did.

I did much more rust repair when my friend and i restored/ fixed my 93 nx2000 after the accident. Here are just a few pics.












The whole project took us about 2 months but we had about 3 weeks where neither of us worked on it. So after doing this a lower radiator support doesnt scare me. When mine starts to get bad i will go through the same process and re paint the entire car.

Also do any of you have rust in the area right behind the front wheels in the floor pan area? My 99 has some pretty bad rust there, i think the sunroof drains could be the culprit. I could be wrong though. Feel free to check out my photo bucket album if you want to see any more pics of the car i have a few hundred i think. LOL

insane imports

Here are a few more. I didnt relise you could only post 5 at a time lol.

ThaMax

iTrader: (2)

I've got a quick question to those who have replaced their lower rad supports with OEM replacements. Where is the part manufactured? USA or Japan? I would like to know as I will be ordering one from worldpartsexpress.com and am trying to calculate what my shipping, taxes and potential duty fees may be since I'm located in Canada.

shavedmax

iTrader: (6)

same price as the dealer with discount. dont think its worth it after shipping/taxes etc

DAVE Sz

iTrader: (2)

Mine is ghetto fixed but has been going strong for 3-4 years. I have a 1/16" flat bar on top of the lower rad support, then two 1/4" plates for the bolts to go through, then I have another 1/16" flat bar -----\__/------ shaped like that. The bolts and beam sit in that and are bolted through it, then I have 2 long bolts on each side holding the top and bottom flat bars against the lower rad support. It's held up so far but I plan on just putting in a new lower rad support after this winter, and probably on the gf's car as well.

here we go

atriuum

iTrader: (3)

It's a work of art...

speedofsalt32

So i went to take my tranny out fer the clutch, i didnt have to unbolt the core support, it was just danglin, there all crazy like, i was surprised as good as the car was driving before, i think some heavy duty angle iron will work out better that the new core tho, just build it over what is already in existence they also seem to rust of twhat would be the frame rails if it had one behind the rear wheels and in the trunk, i live in the southern tier of new york, its pretty ****ed. ill save her the 1995 dont have to pass emissions

Jeffsta119

i did mine by myself...i live in new england & mine was pretty far gone aswell. i just cut out the rot & welded a piece of metal & drilled a couple holes..it works & stoped the noise from the front end

GGENIUS

iTrader: (1)

the pic is small but you can clearly see the rusted area. mine was bad and then i got clobbered so its completely disconnected.

affekonig

Dead thread revival from a "new" guy AND I'm selling something. I have a brand new, OEM radiator support with bolts and bushings that I bought for my 99 and never ended up installing. All stickers still on all parts $160 and I'm in Lisle, IL. affekonig2000@yahoo.com if you'd like to pick it up...

mad_man_max_98

What if we spray one of those construction sealant foams, usually its used in the gap between the door frame and the wall. fill up the lower core with this stuff plus rust resistant from outside. Whala!!

GGENIUS

iTrader: (1)

a triple fakey backside butt-plugweld?

GGENIUS

iTrader: (1)

no ones gonna buy that in this thread. theres a place for you to sell this but im not gonna tell you where it is. nyah nyah.

comingup

Get me some pictures and we might have a deal...

Welded my previous max as it was down the tubes as it was, then just bought a new 98 about a month ago.

Not as bad as the old 98 but thinking about just getting this out of the way.

ajm8127

iTrader: (8)

62530-40U00

comingup

naw, i went with the 62530-a32b001

just the lower from courtesyparts.com

shipped was 166, not bad

wranglerwheelmaxima

i pulled my transmission last night to do my clutch and flywheel and when i was taking out the cross member i first unbolted the motor from the two mounts, then once i unbolted the bolts by the firewall i didnt even have to unbolt the front ones, it FELL OUT !!. now i found the whole radiator support on ebay, but i was wondering if anybody knows if that includes everything or i have to buy another piece to complete it.

Swazey

buy an oem one from nissan. the ebay ones are cheap and dont last long. if you dont believe me, SEARCH!

tiphawk

Would sandwiching the top section of the hollow raditor support bar with two separate 1/4" steel bars hold it together?






I'll mount the crossmember bar onto the top section with 4" long 1/2" bolts. I'll also spray on rust converter and rubber coating after grinding and wire brushing it all.

wranglerwheelmaxima

i bought an ebay support like an idiot but it was cheap and 1000x better than it was. i mean the only thing that was really holding it together through the turns was the front strut bar. all and all it wasnt to hard just time consuming so i will reach for the oem nissan radiator support when the cash flow is good but for now i think it will be ok.

Morpheus2010

iTrader: (2)

mine was out completely. my engine was already being affected whenever i reversed into my garage i could hear it struggling a little. I had a welder fix it with a completely new radiator frame, total price $350.

Pilm

Morpheus2010, I'm in Orlando too, would like to know where you went for the repair, price you mention sounds really good. Also, did you supply the frame to the welder?

tigersharkdude

iTrader: (20)

^his post was made 10 months ago..

Click the core support link in my sig....you get what you pay for. The complete OE support is more than his total. For that price he either got just the lower support or some eBay junk

Pilm

Thanks for pointing out the newer threads.

Yeah, that post wasn't clear, but if I could find someone to replace the lower support with an OE one for $350 I'd jump on it.