[darrylburke]

I was sitting (standing acutally) at the gas pump today, and was looking at the side panels of the MO, and the salt that was starting to build up (it snowed a few times here so the salters were out..)

and I noticed something wierd.. if you look at the back doors.. the door panels go all the way back and are actually part of the wheel well.. most cars have a 1" trim around the wheel well, where the panel is part of the side.

What the MO does is have a weather seal which is in there.. so if you look in the wheel well, you see


Door panel weather strip body panel (in wheel well)


Now, having a car in Canada for 15 years, I can tell that Salt will build up in the "crease" which faces the wheels, and start to rust the door, it also makes it easy for stones to hit the side door, and start the rust going..

Someone put my name down on the calendar.. in 4 years MO owners are going to be having major RUST problems on the rear doors.. and you can quote me on that..

 

[Kris]

It does not snow here......:2:

And there is no salt on the roads either.........:5: :18:

 

[darrylburke]

Bastard

 

[Dookie]

I'm not sure if this matters but aren't the doors and hatch made of a composite material?

 

[Doombringer]

I think he means the back doors, not the rear hatch.

And yeah, this may cause a problem. I think we should all be aware of it and keep this area cleaned.

 

[darrylburke]

Here is a picture, of what I was talking about.


one thing I noticed (and not to sure how effective they will be are the two "protected" areas, one is the large pad on the side, and the door has one that goes over the exact area I was talking about.. I'm not sure now much extra proctection it gives the door from rocks (in the wheel well) but the salt can still go behind the area (inside the door) onces the weather stripping starts to shrink (like it always does after a few years..)

 

[wheeling]

I see what you mean. Time will tell. But the potential is there, especially the inside of the back door. Fortunately, there is no snow under the sun of Texas.

 

[muraniac]

I too live in a snow and salted road area and I noticed this back door issue on my first look at the Murano and I did not like it. However, I had noticed that other cars were built the same way, some low line like the Sunbird-Cavalier, but also Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Aurora and Cadillac STS. Interestingly, even 6 years old cars of this sort do not appear to rust more, maybe less in fact than comparable models with the lip around wheel wells.
Thus I was reassured enough to get the Murano dream car.

 

[darrylburke]

so it would seem that Chev/GMC has the problem solved. I wonder if the Nissan will hold up as well.???

 

[jaak]

Wasn't a problem last winter, so this won't be any different....

If anything, it's a better design, as you won't get salt on your clothes from that area. It stays pretty clean, compared to the door, which get's opened.

You might want to take your name off that list. I don't see any issues, it's actually a better design.

 

[Dr V]

Keep the door seals lubricated with a non-petroleum based product for tires and vinyl, and shrinking should be kept to a minimum.

 

[muraniac]

Advantage of rear doors design

After posting a reply on this thread I started to look more carefully at rear doors design of different rides. In addition to the GM products mentioned previously, I have found that the Chrysler Seebring, an early Mazda 626, the Trail-Blazer-Envoy-Bravada family, Tribute-Escape, Jeep and probably others have adopted the same "no leap around wheel well" design. I believe that JaaK has the wright answer to that design, it keeps the entry clean and avoids getting salt and dirt on the passengers cloth. Most cars where this design was adopted are either more likely to get dirty, SUV's or have large back doors where the wheel well fits closely the shape of the back seat. Since early rides with this design do not appear to be more vulnerable to rust and since it has advantages over the other design without, at least in the case of the Murano, looking as a cheap economy driven design, I consider this as an other positive feature of the Murano.