I recently took my 1995 Maxima SE 5 speed with 100,000 miles in for inspection. It passed it for all normal things with flying colors. However, the service guy at my garage, a friend, asked me to look at a rust problem that greatly concerned him. There is a strut right under the radiator going from side to side. Another strut tees into this one and runs under the engine front to back of the car and supports the front motor mount. Where the tee strut bolts to the cross radiator strut there is a great deal of rust and corrosion that appears to make the bolted connection questionable. If that connection gives way it is likely that the tee strut would drop to the ground and possibly spear into something. I doubt the engine would drop because the other mounts would hold it, but it could be a dangerous and ultimately terminal problem for a car that is otherwise in perfect shape.
My service guy has checked around and he found that a body shop he deals with has replaced this cross strut on a number of Maximas and Infinitis that have not passed inspection because of the problem. He said this is an $1800 repair, which seems to be more than 50% of the car's value.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced this problem and has any words of wisdom in solving it. It seems to me that Nissan has used very poor paint/coatings on these frame members to allow them to corrode so much in 10 years or so. The rest of the car's underside has a few areas of surface rust, but nothing like the deterioration in this spot. I have all of the usual questions about whether or not to put that much money into a low value car, but I will have to work those out for myself. I would be interested to hear if others seem to have the same problem. You may have to remove one or both of the plastic splash panels to get a good look at the area in question.
Thanks for any help or advice you may have.