Let me start off by saying this isn't a problem with my Xterra but a problem with my Frontier instead. It's an 01 4x4 king cab. I bought this thing last fall and it looked really good. It's a white truck and everything stands out on it. This spring I started noticing that the thing is starting to rust. Not the big 80s style Toyota rusting but rather little speckles all over it. Anybody else ever noticed this on your Xs or Frontiers? Other than that I love the thing. It only has 45,000 miles on it. Any thoughts or ideas about why it happened or how to treat it? I haven't applied any waxes to it since I bought it and god only knows if the previous owner ever had. Unfortunately it is out of warranty but could this be a Nissan defect?

you sure it's not just surface 'dust' rusting? before you go getting all hyped up.. head up to autozone and buy a clay-bar for a couple bucks and see if that takes care of the problem.
what happens is there'e metal debris in the road dust/crap flying around and it affixes itself to our lovely painted vehicles.. sticks there.. and rusts. a claybar will remove it if that's the case.
now.. if you have a million little raised pinholes, then thats a different story

I took a pretty good look at it and they are divets in the finish. I don't think the clay-bar is going to do anything for this but I might pick one up anyways.

it might still do something.. my car was white and I had a similar problem- give it a shot.. $3 is better than $300 to get 1 panel re-painted.

and after just looking at my black X.. i see the spots again but they're not visible without being right up close to the paint.. what can i say, stuff shows up much betetr on white.. but it's such a hot paint choice!!!

What brand of clay bar do you recommend? I see their is quit a broad range of available products. My guess is they all probably perform the same.

grab a Mothers bar.. that's what Ive always used unless the bf could snag me somethin from his dealership i'd assume they all do pretty much the same thing, but the Mothers name is pretty respected.. goodluck!

Hmm, if you search around you should find some complaints about the rear hatches on Xterra's rusting in much the same way you are describing

I dunno if it was ever resolved. Seemed to mainly only affect 00-01's so I didn't pay that close of attention to those threads.

I am going to pick up the mother's or mcguire kit this weekend and give it a shot. I read something a while back about the X's tailgates also. Luckily, I backed into a garbage can and already had mine resprayed.

I picked up the mcguire's kit this weekend and spent all day on the truck. It was well worth it as I was able to pull all of the rust off of the truck. I was totally in shock that a handful of play do could do so much. Thanks for the pointer!

no problem!