Yesterday some drops of water came out of my storage area above my rearview mirror and also from the joint where the left windshield airbag meets my ceiling panel. I thought my moon roof might be leaking but when I took it to the dealership today they found that the leak is from my windshield seal. They have to remove my windshield, reseat it, and reseal it. Yikes! Has anybody experienced this? I'm thinking it's just a fluke in my car.

 

G4Jedi - First time I have seen that problem with a 6th gen, and I have tried to read everything here for the past fifteen months. This should probably be 'written off' as a fluke, unless someone else reports the same problem.

As you live in rainy Florida, you were wise to attend to this right away.The water was clearly getting into areas where things are not waterproofed. It would not have been long before unseen rusting began to cause major problems.

 

G4Jedi, I think what you're describing is the same problem I've been experiencing, except mine hasn't been fixed. It appears to only happen when my Max is parked for a long period of time (usually overnight) and its been raining relatively hard for several hours. I notice the leaking right in the corner of the headliner on the front driver's side. I've had my delaership look into it three times so far. In fact, I just took it in for a fourth time yesterday to have it worked on today. They have already replaced the rubber molding around the door for some unknown reason.

 

clayman88, i have the same problem as you under the same circumstances. I have yet to bring it in to the dealership

 

Wow! After 131,700 '04 Maximas were built over a twenty month period, we get our first three leaky windshields reported in a two day period. All leaking at the top on the driver's side.

When we consider that probably 90% (or more) of '04 Maxima owners are unwashed (not reading this board), we have to assume there may be hundreds of '04 Maximas with leaky windshields.

Almost every make and model will have an occasional leaky windshield. But three reported in two days? Sort of worrisome.

With the electronics in today's Maximas, there is no way I would tolerate a leaky windshield. Too much damage can be done by water mixing with electronics.

 

Lightonthehill, you make a good point. The only thing with mine is that we haven't confirmed that it is coming from my windshield. I got my Max back yesterday after they worked on the leaking. Turns out the tube, that drains water from the sunroof area, that runs down the front drivers-side post, was kinked. They un-kinked it and gave it back to me. GUESS WHAT!!! Roof was leaking again today!!! I'm actually tracking this whole process on another thread if you wanna know all the details.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=332739

 

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since they resealed my windshield and guess what? My car was dripping water in the same places again today. Back to the dealership I go...

 

Darn! Even the Ford dealer who replaced the windshield in my wife's truck took the time to thoroughly soak her truck with water from a hose to make sure there was no leak. But then some leaks are more pernicious (and slower to develop) than others.

In looking at this thread again, I suspect the leak may not be a windshield problem. Based on where the water shows up, I feel it is more likely to be a sunroof or skyview problem.

I think clayman88 says he has a sunroof. G4jedi has a 'moonroof'. Is that the same as a power sunroof, or is that the skyview? Another poster (ohthatshot) gave no clue as to which he had. Maybe if all three actually have power sunroofs, that might be a clue.

 

For all those wanting to know what Lightonthehill is talking about when he says "pernicious" go here...

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionar...ious&x=15&y=16

Way to keep us all on our toes "Light"...

 

I was referring to a moonroof/sunroof/power-sunroof....i.e. a glass window that moves back when you push the button.
Anyhow, I've taken my Max in 5 times now for this leaking issue & still no fix. Apparently there are tubes that run down each of the posts that are designed to drain water from the sunroof area. The dealership found that the tube in the driver-side front post was kinked and was not draining. I thought this was the root of hte problem, but sure enough a few days later it rained overnight & my car was leaking in the same spot AGAIN. This past weekend I had my dealership look at it again. This time they took down the entire headliner and all four posts and ran water on the roof for several hours and never got it to leak. I'm so fed up with all the problems I'm having, that I'm working with Nissan now to get a new vehicle. Still love driving the car though.

 

Bad news for me. My dealership wasn't able to reproduce the leak so they have no idea where it's coming from. All I can do is get my car back and speed over to the dealership the next time it leaks so they can take it apart when it is fresh to see where the water is coming in. Not what I wanted to hear. P.S. I have the power sunroof. They said they checked that out to with no luck. Hopefully one of us will get to the bottom of this and we'll all get it fixed...

 

I am having the same exact problem. clayman88 described it perfectly. Only when it's parked in the same spot and raining hard for a couple hours. I get in the car and visually see the soaked corner of fabric. I then touch it and the water transfers to my fingertip making it not just damp but actually wet. I usually take a clean rag and soak up as much water as I can then drive. If I don't soak up some of the water, when I accelerate slightly faster than necessary droplets of water will fall from the corner and hit me on the head and shoulder area...quite annoying. I hope I don't have any rust damage.

Seeing as how some of you have already taken it to the dealership and attemped to have it fixed with no success I'm just going to live with it for the time being. I don't think it's going to rain here for quite awhile...at least until winter. If somebody finds a fix or the cause of the leak post it here. Maybe it's the windshield seal like someone already said. That sounds very expensive to re-seal and labor intensive.

 

The posts I made in this thread last year were what I knew at the time. Now I know much more.

Water leaking from the ceiling of the 6th gen Maxima is not from a windshield leak; it is from a blocked drainage tube (or two) which should be carrying water from underneath the sunroof down the 'A' pillars (one on each side of the windshield) and dumping it on the ground just behind the front wheels. As explained by the sticky, the sunroof on the Maxima is not designed to be watertight; a drainage system handles the water.

We have a VERY detailed sticky (under '6th Gen Maxima /How to', check out the 'Sunroof leaking' procedure) on how to get this fixed. It is among the other stickies at the top of the 6th gen board.

Should you still have questions after reading the sticky, just PM me.

If the leak was persistent, you may have water under the carpet in one of the front footwells. If so, this is serious (will cause rust and mildew), and great effort should be made to dry out that footwell.

Head for the sticky!


edit - I just read clayman88s post from last fall. I guarantee you he still had a drain tube blocked. The dealers are very weak in this water leak area. If one follows the sticky procedure, he will be able to tell the dealer which tube is blocked, and how far down the tube the blockage is. Hint: the blocked tube will be on the side of the car that was lower when the rain fell.

Water from near the sunglass storage area or at the top of either 'A' pillar will be the result of blocked drainage tubes, UNLESS one parks with the front end much higher than the rear end. Nissan's system will not work well in that situation.