I have a 2004 black Maxima SL that is approximately one month old. I've really enjoy my car (it has 3500 mles already), but I noticed one thing that is really strange. If you roll your back windows all the way down while the front windows are up, the wind makes a very loud noise while driving at highway speeds. You can even feel the pressure created by the wind in your ears. I very seldom drive with my windows down especially the back windows, but I did find the experience very annoying. I wonder why this problem was not corrected before the car went into production.

 

Same thing happened in my 2001 BMW 330i.

I guess BMW has a design flaw in the 3-series by your logic?

 

Its not a design flaw, air going in needs a way to go out, or pressure will build up. With only the rear windows open there is no way for entering air to escape except for where the air entered, which is through the rear windows. That is why you get a pulsating sound. It is the air entering and exiting the vechicle as well as the pressure build up in the vechicle. To eliminate the problem open a front window so the air can escape as it enters. All cars do this for the most part. It is not a flaw, but rather an inherent characteristic of any car design. Hope this helps.

 

happens on lots of cars. Don't fret

 

Its much like when you blow across the top of a glass pop bottle. It resonates and makes a noise. Only in this case you are inside the pop bottle. Its a natural phenomenon.

CM.

 

It's called buffeting. It is as that CanadianMoFo described it.

 

That reply was smooth as ice...

 

i saw this exact same post in the Murano forums.....sounds bogus to me...i think someone copied and pasted it. it was the exact same wording.

 

It creates a low pressure area in the front of the car, much the same way a low pressure area is created behind the windshield of a convertable. That is why your hair blows forward in a convertable.

In my Excursion it was so bad that it actually hurt my ears to have a window in the back seat open with out one of the back corner windows, or front windows open. It is going to happen in any car that has windows that roll down in the back seat.

 

It seems particularly bad in cars whose rear windows roll all the way down.

 

I had a car with a sunroof that did the same thing if it was open and all the windows were rolled down.

 

It is just like when High Pressure and Low Pressure weather systems collide, you get wind. High Pressure (the air outside the car when it is moving) wants to go where the Low Pressure is (in the car). My wife still hasn't figured this out. When we are driving the convertable with the top down, if she is cold she will put her window up, and the wind just gets worse because the low pressure area moves from all across the inside of the windshield to the corner where the windshield meets the side window.

The effect is her hair blows forward, and mine doesn't

 

"smooth as ice" to my mind,would be a couple of Margaritas and a little Jimmy "Buffet"

 

I also find it in most cars that have 'all the way roll down rears', but for some reason, i have only noticed it on cars/SUV's that are ellivated. My mom's CR-V does it. my friend and I call it Chopping. It sounds like a Helocopter above ur car. The 6th Gen has a very big roof line, not like an SUV, but bigger then most cars.

 

If thats what your think your too ****ing old

 

busted, then again, maybe the murano forums copied us, or...... it might be the same guy posting the same thing

 

You'll get the same effect when you have the sunroof partially open at certain postions with windows up.

 

Nice to see all these intelligent (and correct) answers.

I first noticed this 'problem' in my '49 Studebaked over fifty years ago, and it has been present in every car I have ever owned (including three Maximas), for the exact reasons put forth so eloquently by the responders to this thread.

 

.. it seems that if you happen to recall JIMMY BUFFET, your way too old to be on this site

 

like jimmy said.....it is called buffeting....nissan is usually pretty good at taking care of this but the murano has the same problem as well...(with the roof open and all windows closed...low speeds)...

 

it is called physics.

 

I have both the o4 max SE and 03 Murano. This is perfectly normal. My Jag, BMW, Mercedes, they all did it.