This may have been listed somewhere, but if not I wanted to fill you guys in on what I discovered. It's been established that the hood is a bit loose, so there is leeway for it to bounce around a bit, but in my case there was no metal on metal rubbing anywhere that I could find. Low and behold it is where the welded hook on the hood where the hook goes into the hood latch; b/c of the leeway in the hood the hook would slide and bounce around in the latch creating the squeak.
I tried spraying on the rubberized undercarriage spray, but eventually it would rub off, that as well as good ol' duct tape. I haven't found a permanent solution, but as of now I have a strip of foam weather striping wrapped around the hook. It's sticky on one side and about 1/2" thick, so it creates a tight fit. I've had this on there for about six months and with no squeak what-so-ever, but I can see that it's starting to wear down, so it'll be time to replace it soon enough.
I would bet that probably for most of you it's the same issue. I remember it being very hard to pin point exactly, so I wanted to share this with anyone who isn't quite sure of it's origins. Nissan tried the whole hood tightening and adjustment thing and it did nothing for me; they actually thought that it was the skid plate originally.
Anyways, I hope that this helps somebody.


Edited by Dirty-J (27/12/09 08:31 AM)
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05' Xterra S 4X4