Since my car had its OE spoiler ripped off, I need to know how to install the OE spoiler. Pointers? Thanks.

 

Are the holes where the original spoiler was bent or not round anymore? Apart from that happening, taking off the mat from the top of the trunk should expose the bottom of the holes where the bolts will go on.

 

Since you've got the original holes in the trunk pre-drilled, you will need to do the following prep first:

1) Remove your 4 old plastic grommets that hold (or more rather, in this case, held) your spoiler on the trunk
2) Remove the rubber sealing grommet in the left, middle in-board hole, if it's still there.
2) Remove the industrial-strength adhesive tape that held the spoiler in place (I belive there's 4 separate places); I'd recommend carefully peeling it off first, then followup with Goo Gone (about $3) or some other good adhesive remover. Once you've removed ALL of the tape and residue, wipe the area w/ a damp cloth (water) a couple of time to clean up any residual adhesive remover that may be on the trunk lid, so it doesn't weaken your new tape that will be applied in the same area. Wipe dry w/ a clean cloth.

Then, for the acutal spoiler install (based on your SE models; however, for other owners of cars that don't have predrilled holes (as in GLE/GXE), it's slightly different, so don't follow these for new spoiler installs), Eric, you will need to:

1) Inside the trunk, remove the trunk lid trim plastic rivets (if they are the twist type, then turn them 1/4 counter clockwise then remove them; if they are the other type, you can probably just use the tongs of a hammer to help you safely remove them). Save these since you don't get any new ones.
2) Check the end of your spoiler wiring to make sure the harness is intact. (you can use a multimeter and have someone push on the brakes to check that it's still putting out DC power with the brakes applied).
3) Put in 4 new grommets (comes w/ a new factory spoiler); flatten the area around your trunk if needed, maybe by "lightly" hammering the area w/ a rubber mallet, but be careful not to scratch up the paint.
4) YOU'LL NEED A HELPER ON THIS STEP. Peel off the liners to the adhesive on the spoiler. While someone is hold the spoiler above the trunk, insert the lamp harness through the deck hole lid (and make sure the sealing grommet is sealed onto the deck lid before engagig the clips to the grommets).
5) CAREFULLY place the spoiler clips above the grommets and the bolt studs over the holes and slowly lower the spoiler on to the deck lid. Push the spoiler down above the clips to engage the plastic grommets.
6) Apply even pressure on the spoiler side stays for about 15s to make sure the spoiler is seated and adhesive sticks the spoiler to the trunk.
7) Check the complete adhesion of the spoiler to the deck lid; if not complete, just put some more even pressure on those areas to make sure no gaps exist between the spoiler and trunk.
8) Use the nuts and bolt down the spoiler to the trunk lid (tighten to 15 foot-lbs (20 N-m). It's pretty much to the level of making sure it's secure, but don't over-tighten.
9) Connect the spoiler wiring harness to the brake wiring harness.
10) Check operation of your spoiler lamp.
11) Put back on your trunk lid trim, and replace the plastic rivets. That's it!

A painted Nissan OEM spoiler will cost you about $264 painted to match your car's factory color (and that is with the 20% discount from Brown and Brown Nissan or Courtesy Nissan; FYI, I bought mine from B&B Nissan as it was closer to my home state). I had bought mine last summer, so the price should pretty much be the same. If you had a GXE/GLE, and were doing a new install (w/o the predrilled holes) then you'd need a spoiler kit (about $50; comes w/ heavy duty trunk torsion bars, longer plastic grommets, new trunk wire harness, rear tray cover, and a drilling template, and a few other misc. items), but as you've got the holes predrilled on your car, then you don't need it, as the spoiler will come w/ a few parts to ensure a successful replacement install.

They won't be hard to do, so long as your holes aren't too bent up. Send me a message or email if you need more help (or for those considering a new OEM spoiler install, I can type up the whole instructions for you). Good luck.

 

Thank you for that very detailed writeup. It will definatlely make my install easier. For the time being I will probably clean up what I can now, and then wait until the thing comes in. I hope Courtesy will take a return of the spoiler install kit since it seems I do not need one anymore.

 

I forgot to mention about the removal of the plastic grommets that secure the spoiler onto the trunk. They are removed from the inside of the trunk, so you'll need to remove the trunk liner first (see my previous post). You can use some large pliers (or maybe even your hands) to squeeze the inner clips to a "closed position" so you can then slip the old plastic grommets up and out of your trunk. However, I'd wait until your new spoiler comes, so you don't have any uncovered holes in your trunk in the meantime.

If your old plastic grommets seem to be in good condition w/o and any mars on the plastic that will hold your new spoiler in, then you might want to consider keeping them in place. But then again, your spoiler will come w/ new ones, so although you could leave on your old ones, maybe you should just go ahead and put in the new supplied ones.

One other thing, as I noticed your spoiler was literally "ripped off" from your trunk, the holes where the bolts are secured might have enlarged, so to take care of that, you could just use some washers under your bolts to effectively enlarge your bolting area.

Hope the replacement spoiler install works out!