check your rear mudflaps.....
 

i used to make a habit out of checking the little pocket on the inside of the wheel well for dirt. welp, alot of road work in my area and it was packed with stones and heavy soot. i went to clean it out and a nice little piece of the well just popped off. fuk, its not too bad and i coated it with some undercoating spray but i doubt that lasts very long. so, you might want to make sure that area on top of the mudguard is cleaned out when you wash the car.

this is 10000% correct. also everyone should redo and reroute their drainage tube that runs under the right QP. these two things should prevent wheel well rust in the rear.

come to think of it, alot of 4th gen maximas i've seen ALL have the rust real bad on the right side. nissan should've recalled our gen for that and the rad support YEARS ago, dammit!!! :mad:

im gonna have to replace my drainage tube at some point. iirc the problem is some metal part of the tube that rusts easily as ****, causing it to leak all in our right QP. im hoping i can cut the tube above it and put in a plastic attachment to some new hose.

im starting to get a very little amount of rust there. so im gonna have to look into it alot myself soon.

post up pics of w/e you do to fix it. im not sure what needs to be done.

yes, my first 3 4th gens did not have any problems with rust there, but my current daily does. sucks.

i think someone should do a write up!!!

I remember changing my fender and finding all of the leaves/dirt that get crammed in near the rocker panel and all the crevices. I couldnt imagine what the mudflaps would add to that

+1

I had to fix both rusted out quarters early last year. The right quarter rusted because the piece that connects the sunroof and power antenna drain hoses rusted away. The antenna hose curled up and caused rust on both sides of that quarter.

Attachment 40523

I didn't have a welder back then so after spraying on rust converter then rubber coating I clipped on a piece of plastic

Attachment 40524

I extended the larger sunroof hose and gave it a separate grommet.

Two weeks ago when I did some more body work on the left quarter I replaced that plastic piece with sheet metal on the right quarter. It wasn't actually necessary because it never further rusted over the last 20 months. I threw a hand made antenna in the trunk and shaved that power antenna so now there's only 1 drain hose there.

I was just messing with my front drainage tubes yesterday. Like an idiot I pulled to hard from the bottom and pulled it off the drain hole in the corner of the sunroof so I had to take apart the headliner and run it through again. Its really not an ideal system. I put RTV around where the tube connects and I think this will avoid future hassles. Any more and Im sealing the sunroof up. I dont use the thing anyways

thats pretty decent looking, what did you use to fasten the plastic to the inside of the quarter? and where did you get the hose and the little seal for it to go through?? and the plastic section for the hole?? thats what i need, money savers right now, im so broke i cant afford to pay attention. :bawling: fricking nissan and their corner cutting, i think they figured people would get rid of their car after 3 or 4 years. mines still solid except for this little crap. 18 years old in december.

mine isnt that bad at all, its just a little 2 inch spot on the flange in the actualy wheel well, not the lower part of the QP like the pictures.

"the piece that connects the sunroof and power antenna drain hoses rusted away"

this is the piece i imagine is causing my problems. if i take all the lining out of my trunk, i should be able to mess with the drainage hoses, and replace that stupid metal connector right?

OMG! I gotta check this on my car Pronto. 12 years old, completely rust free california car. I want to keep it that way for as long as possible now that its in the northeast.

I separated mine a couple years ago, but found water inside the 1/4. It caused the paint to bubble on the outside. Such a shame that a cheap part like that causes so much damage. Why they didn't use plastic is beyond me....that would s*** having a rust free west coast car and getting rust as a result...

i had a pretty rust free east coast car until this little ****.

i also found out that the roof just drains down the b pillars in the front and not into the wheel well through a hose. the rear just drains down through the trunk canal and behind the bumper. i was told the moonroof has a little hose that does have a drain in the front wheelwells. i think my 95 might be a little different than the 97-99's. any 95's in here?

moi

good eye and good thread :kiss: i'm gonna take a look at that back splash guard for some crap, winter comin up soon n they salt the **** out of roads sometimes in the toronto area. car's in great shape for its age (70k mi now) considering it was and still is a dd. i already got a bit of rust on the bottom front fender in front of the wheel and spolier mount rust :/ gonna try and prevent this as well as plug my broken antenna so it doesn't house water.

I removed my mudflaps when i bought my car and about threw up only to find the lack of radiator support haha. Im doing away with my power antenna so hopefully i can just delete that hose and extend the other one. My inside quarters underneath are worse than that. Hopefully wont be a hard fix.

That lower rad support was an example of poor design. I recently saw someone with a 2k Hyundai Elantra and there was zero rust on the car (east coast). There was no dumb crossmember either bolting up to the rad support. I guess the 4th gen was not perfect (then again imho it was the last good Maxima)....

So, because I have an ultra luxurious power antenna, instead of a fixed mast antenna, my car has an extra drain tube/hole? Bizarre. I'm tempted to downgrade.

i unplugged that stupid thing anyway. i dont wanna hear that annoying *** noise everytime i turn my key. ipods ftw.

Despite my car being 14 years old, my power antenna is still silent. I kinda still love it.

It's weird tho. All new cars dont have visible antennas, so mine really stands out. EVERYBODy knows when I'm turning on my radio lol.

when i got mine, the guy had cut the antenna mast off all the way at the bottom. so it was useless anyway. and it made that winding noise like it was actually going anywhere lol. just pissed me off.

i had to add a switch years ago because i wanted the ipod/sirius/am/fm/cd all together and there was'nt enough places to plug the antenna so i put a on.off switch in underneath my bass boost volume dial to the left of the wheel. my new alpine amp also has external bass control which is awesome cause i thought i was gonna have a useless dial. i will post a pic of my switch and dial tommorow.

good ideas guys

That drainage pipe doesnt even exist on my car anymore lmao dam rust ring