So today after I washed my car and was wiping it down long behold my front drivers side splash guard is somehow cracking. There are no impact marks on it at all it is just basically cracking; See Below...



What do you all recommend I do with this? Anyone else having this problem?

I will post a better day shot tomorrow evening.

 

KillaKam - Kinda hard to tell for sure in that photo, but the cracks could be consistent with the car having driven over a tall hard rubber speed bump, and as the front tire drops off the speed bump, and the car drops back down, the weight of the car crushed the splash guard against the top of the tall rubber speed bump. The rubber speed bump, however, probably would leave very little in the way of marks on the bottom of the splash guard.

Of course that may not have been what happened at all, but I have noticed my Maxima bottoms out on many speed bumps. This Maxima does have the least ground clearance (4 1/2 inches) of any Maxima ever built.

One other unlikely possibility might be that, while driving at road speed, the tire threw up a stick of wood or something that hit the bottom of the splash guard with considerable force.

The primary reason your dealer may think these cracks are impact-related is because these splash guards are under no stress whatsoever, and have no moving parts. Something must have hit this splash guard from underneath somehow, even though you obviously were not aware at the time that something bad had happened.

Of course you may get your dealer to accept that these cracks happened for no reason, and he might order you one on Nissan's tab. If he wont, I would be tempted to just have this one sanded and repainted instead of trying to buy a new one, because these probably come only in sets of four.

 

Ya I agree that something like that may happen but there are absoutly no rubber speed bumps anywhere that I go in CT. The onlythink tat I an think of is that the cracked because of the cold to hot wether or the dealership did something when they put it up on a lift. I can't see any damage to it in the bottom side at all.

 

Ummmm . . . most lifts have hard rubber pads on them, and many have four pods that are placed just behind the front wheels and just ahead of the rear wheels . . . I wonder . . .

 

Ya very true I was thinkin that and my car has never been on a lift anywhere but the dealership before so possibly that may hbe een the cause. I'll have ti use that lie when I go back to the dealership.

 

I doubt that lifts were involved. The lift/jack points are inboard of the rockers, which would have been crushed if they tried to lift at the rockers themselves.

The cracks to me look like they are in the paint. I'd bet money my dealer would warranty it.

 

Well I took it to the dealership today and apparently I dinged it somewhere because there is alittle indent in the Splash Guard but the paint is not scraped and is in-tacked so I have no clue.

 

Is the splash guard replaceable? I scratched it by going up a curb...it's kind of hard to see unless you're looking from underneath. but anyways, i see the splash guards being sold separately so can i assume that it is detachable? got a 2010 maxima

 

If i remember correctly they're only held on with tape. Maybe 1 screw. I don't remember exactly. Very easy to take off though.

 

Is it just me or are the splash guards almost too integrated into the body.

 

Is it just me or do the splash guards seem to integrated into the body.

 

The OEM splash guards for the 7th gen are purely stylistic, and serve no functional purpose. That is why many of us here here on the ORG made small mud flaps to attach to the front of these stylistic OEM splash guards. We make these flaps by trimming down el cheapo flaps available at any auto store.

There is a sticky amongst those in the sticky files near the top of this board that shows exactly how we made these flaps, which are virtually invisible, but give lots of protection to the sides of the car.