UPDATE (10/15/09) So I just picked up my car today and finally after about alittle over a month the issues has been resolved. Come to find out what was said to me is the tape that they use in the back for the spoiler is just to thin so what the did is doubled up the tape in the back which evened out the spoiler. To me it looks fine and there is no more lifting. Finally the spoiler is fixed

Anyone else on here having this problem at all? The driver side of the spoiler is starting to lift (the adhesive wore off or something). I took it to the dealership and they put more adhesive on and they did a crapy job. I can see the adhesive from the outside and that gave out now to so the spoiler is not sticking anymore just like it was before. I have under 12,000 miles on my car. Aren't they supposed to replace the spoiler now seeing as how its under 12K? Any opinion on what I can do about this?

 

CRAP!!! How can this happen to such an excellent ride??? I mean the money we all spent to get this in our garage and you have THIS??? Spoiler starting to peel off. As soon as I read this I went to my garage just to look at my ride and check the spoiler out....no issues to say here but I will definitely keep a close eye on her!!! I would certainly notice since I wash, polish and wax her so often.

Sorry to hear about your MAX KillaKlam......so your saying all the dealership did was offer to put more glue down and did not even do it properly? Have you tried to take it to another dealership?? I am not sure that would help, but you never know.

 

Ya ik your telling me... its like people don't work hard for there money these days.

ya when I took it there all the did was unbolt the spoiler apparently re-sealed it and tightened it back down. I haven't brought it to another dealership yet but i was thinking about it. Do you think that they would charge me to fix the problem if I take it to a dealership where I didn't purchase it at?

 

I would'nt think they would charge as long as your MAX is still under warranty.....I am not sure if the spoiler is officially covered but man your ride is brand NEW, this should not be happening....

 

True... From what I understand is that if the vehicle is at 12k or under it is supposed to be under a break in warranty so to speak. If anything goes wrong with it no matter visual or mechanical of course that something the manufacturer did wrong then it is covered. After 12k any cosmetic things are not covered.

 

You have the Sport option, which means the spoiler was factory-installed. Spoilers are absolutely NOT a 'wear' item. Any factory-installed spoiler that came loose within the first 3 years/36K miles on a car of mine would be CORRECTLY fixed under warranty. Period. Nothing to even be negotiated or discussed.

 

Ya I have the sport option. Thats a good point, do you think that i should take it back to the dealership that i bought the car from or should i take it a a nissan certified dealership?

 

Simply bring it back and have them replace or repair it. This is not "normal" wear. This would be a defect or failed factory item. Also by law any Nissan dealer has to work on it regardless if you bought it from them or not.

 

Forget going to a different dealer. Go back to the same place, and let them know how dissatisfied you are in the quick fix...and you want this repaired correctly, along with a loaner car for the day, since you had to bring it back.

 

Ok, so the factory spoiler is held down by 3 bolts and surrounding the bolts there are adhesive backed foam pads. So is your problem that the bolts are loosening? If that's the case tell them to throw some lock-tite on the bolts and be done with it. If its just the corners that are lifting where there is the foam, then they just did a horrible install and you need to make them redo it correctly. They must not have cleaned the surfaces well enough before applying the adhesive pads. I would think the bolts would be tight enough to hold the whole unit flush and the adhesive is just a seal from the outside world... I don't know though I dont have a spoiler.

 

I have the impression the bolts are secure, but the double-stick foam pads are loose. I agree with you that double-stick foam pad failure is sometimes caused by not having both surfaces completely clean at installation time. The fact the spoiler can flutter with three bolts in place tells me the bolt locations were not wisely chosen. If the bolts at the ends of the spoiler were very near the ends, even failure of the double-stick pads would not allow the end of the spoiler to flutter to any extent.

Any Nissan dealer we take our car to is required to do valid warranty work. Since KillaKam has already taken this to a dealer who did not fix the problem correctly, he might want to return to that same dealer and insist on the problem being fixed correctly. But he has the right to have any Nissan dealer fix this.

 

Well its not flapping around YET but I want the issue corrected before it becomes a bigger problem. At the moment its more of an eye sore because the residue from the stuff that they used to "correct" the problem is way to visible and didn't correctly hold the spoiler in place once again.

I think it would be a good idea to take it back to the same dealership but at the same time the dealership that I originally got the car from does a half fast down all the time and I think that taking it to a Nissan certified dealership would be better now that ik that every nissan dealership has to work on a car still under warranty..

 

Yes its the foam pads right at the tip ends of the spoiler but it is only on the drivers side at the moment. I am surprised that this happened seeing as how it was a feature added on at the factory and not by Nissan.

 

i agree !!

 

Unless you smack it into something... I saw a 09 yesterday on a flatbed tow truck and the spoiler was flapping in the wind... :-(

On a side note definitely take it in however I would research and see if any of your Nissan dealerships in your area has an auto body shop on-site lots of times you'll get much better service because they'll just farm it out to the auto body guys to resolve your spoiler issues as they have lots of experience reinstalling body components.

 

Well the dealership that i go to does have a body shop but it is about 5 min. away from where they are. Its part of the dealership just 5 min a way. Would that be considerable?

 

Definitely I would just drive straight to the body shop and show them most likely they'll just call over to service to verify you as a warranty customer and then take care of you.

 

True I can just do it one day when i'm around the area and see what they could do. i've been there once to fix an alignment with trunk (bent something cause i closed it with snow in the watery draining thing told them something different, lol) but they did a good job with that.

 

Ok so they re-taped the entire bottom of the spoiler and the day after I picked my car up it lifted again. I took it back to the body shop and they said that they would call the service manager over at the dealership that i go to and the service manager said that there was no more that the could do about the situation. He told me to call Nissan Headquarters Custom Service which I have since done and they have a case open up on my issue. I will receive a call back from the on Tuesday about what they are going to do about my issue weather it be replace or repair the spoiler w.e. will resolve my issue best.

If your having this issue just give nissan a call the number is 1(800)Nissan-1

 

As a last resort, would it be possible to drill one more hole way out near each end of the spoiler and bolt the ends down? But even if possible, that would be rather drastic. I just can't understand why all the Nissan spoilers on the '09s are not having this problem.

 

I don't think that would even be possible because the spoiler has the things that you screw in build into it. Unless the factory designed a whole new spoiler I doubt that that would be possible.

 

I see what you are saying. And the things in the spoiler you screw into are probably reinforced whereas any new holes drilled into the spoiler would not be reinforced. Plus there may not be a place on the car where it would be possible to put the new bolts, anyway. What a dilemna.

Which surface does the tape seem to come loose from first, the spoiler or the car? Is it possible the trunk lid of the car may still have a slight residue of wax left from before you installed the spoiler? There has to be an answer to why yours flutters, but most factory ones seem to hold.

 

Its coming lose from from the trunk. Although the factory spoiler did it first as well so the residue on the trunk wouldn't be the cause of it... I will be getting a call back from Nissan on Tuesday so hopefully something gets worked out...

 

I noticed the same on my 2008 Maxima the corners have a slight gap of 1/8" enough to be bothersome removing small leaves that get caught. this was like that since I purchased it new from the dealer I just never noticed enough to mention.

 

Well got a call back from Nissan today and the Regional Rep. From Nissan is going to be coming to the dealerhship tomm where I take my car to get serviced at 4pm to check out the issue with the spoiler... He is going to compare it to the other cars that are on the lot and see if they are doing the same thing to determine if it is a defect in the design/spoiler or if it is a common issue with the car... I am going to wait and hope that they say that they will replace it and or fix the issue (cause for a $35K car this should not be happening) before I take any other actions against Nissan.

 

Well since I last posted the Regional Representative came out and took pictures of the spoiler and compared mine to one that they had on the lot at the dealership. He said that he noticed right away when walking up to the car that they spoiler didn't look right. About a week after that meeting I received a call from Michelle another Regional Representative for the NY, CT area and she said that the pictures were being sent to corporate and she would get back to me.

Another week later I received a call back from here and corporate decided that the spoiler issue I was having was not normal to happen so they went ahead and contacted my dealer and approved a complete swap of my spoiler at no coast to me under a warranty type of repair.

Today I took my car to the body shop after waiting 2 weeks to get the spoiler and have it painted and everything. Well to bring this story to and end I received a call from the body shop and he told me that they put the new spoiler onto my car and took the factory one off. He said that the new spoiler was a hell of a lot worse than the factory one that was one there. He said that he did not know if there was a defect in the spoiler or if it was just not molded right but advised me that is was awful compared to the factory one.

Now my question to all of you is what would you do after all of these failed attempts? I have not received a call back from the Reg. Rep. hopefully she will call me back tomm as I am at a loss on what to do. This is a $35,000 car and I should not be having these issues with it all because of a spoiler. If your going to spend that kinda money on a car it should be done right the first time; AT THE FACTORY!!!! Correct??

 

The replacement spoiler MUST be an official OEM Nissan spoiler, and it CANNOT be defective or warped. Since all OEM Nissan spoilers are made in the same mold, it is difficult to see how one could be warped or fit improperly, unless it has somehow been mishandled or improperly stored at some point.

This is especially annoying since the ONLY thing wrong with your first spoiler is that the things that were supposed to hold it tight against the car failed.

If I were in your place, I would go directly to the body shop and find out why they think the new spoiler is not good. If the new spoiler looks fine to you, you might be OK with it.

But if it is obvious the body shop is right about the new spoiler being bad, then you need to let Nissan know how disappointed you are, and that they must furnish an undamaged spoiler.

It may be that you need to have the Nissan rep talk to the body shop and resolve the issue.

I can't believe the trouble you have had with that spoiler, going right on back to the very beginning.

 

Man what a mess. I am afraid to ask you what dealership as I think it is the one I bought my car at and have been hearing lots of bad things about on this forum. Man I hope my car has no issues. Maybe the some how defected it painting it?

 

Do you think maybe the trunk has an issue? Maybe the bolt holes are too big or something? Or the surface under the spoiler is warped or somehting? Sorry for all that trouble. That is horrible.

 

Well as far as I understand the regional rep. has been in contact with both the dealership as well as the body shop. The spoiler that they sent was OEM and I am not sure then what you say makes a lot of sense but then again y would the new OEM spoiler be worse than the original one?

I talked to my Regional rep today and she said to keep the new spoiler out and they are going to send a Nissan Service Specialist out to check out this problem to see why I keep on having as this is an issue that needs to be fixed. So now ima probaly be waiting another week or two for this to happen.

Its Crowley Nissan in Bristol, CT. Is that where you got your car from?

Ya I was thinking that as well possibly it got damaged some how or it was built with a bad batch of cars who knows but that was one thought that crossed my mind. Well at least they are sending a Nissan Service Specials out this time to check out the issue.

 

Well here you guys go I finally got the chance to take some pix... Now they don't due the problem that I am describing to you guys justice as they are lifting more than they look but these are the best that I could do with my iPhone.







Just an update: I have 2 new spoilers (1 OEM, 1 Generic) coming in and then getting painted. The Nissan Service Tech is the one that is going to be installing them this time as he will determine weather there is a further issues or if they had just been being improperly installed. One thing that I am alittle ticked about is the body shop actually has scratched my trunk in the processes of taking off and putting on the spoilers.

 

Sorry to see your getting the run around and no one is smart enought to find the problem....
I just installed an aftermarket one on my car today and it fit like a glove...
One thing I would question all these people working on your car....if you place the spoiler on the trunk with out bolting it on, does it sit flush to the surface?
I'm thinking the holes in your trunk were drilled incorrect and the people you have installing it just screw it right back to the incorrect hole and you get the same results....
Goodluck

 

Its actually a factory installed spoiler. I have a SV-S so if there is an issue with the holes in the wrong spot then it was the mistake at the Nissan Manufacturing plant.