View Single Post
Old 01-05-2019, 10:56 AM   #1 (permalink)
vman12
Base Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: OH
Posts: 88
Drives: '14 370z roadster M6
Rep Power: 1064
vman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond reputevman12 has a reputation beyond repute
Default Storage lid rubs the fifth bow when opening the soft top

So last year I bought a used 2014 Nissan 370z touring convertible (30k miles). After about 2 months of using the top something made a loud cracking sound one morning when opening roof. Got to work closed the roof. Later that day tried opening the roof and it opened 3/4 of the way, wouldn't go in all the way. Drove to dealer, dealer said the hinge broke. They ordered the hinge. After replacing they said they noticed that there was some trim that was getting caught and caused the hinge to break. So they ordered the trim. After replacing the trim they said the car is ready to come pick up. While in their parking lot I tried to lower the roof and it made some noise. I then closed it and tried opening again. But when opening the lid couldn’t go down as it was hitting the roof. I called the technicians to look. They couldn’t believe it. The tech even said he tried opening and closing like 10 times to make sure it worked before giving back to me. At that point we had to get the lid to go in, so the techs just grabbed the lid and pulled it back a little (I think the tech didn’t have the lid bolts adjusted correctly so the lid was sticking out too much). The lid was now able to go down. I left the dealership without the car. I then get a call from the dealer saying the hydraulic system exploded. How the heck that happened I don’t know since the hydraulics were working fine when I was there. Dealer blamed it on some duct tape that was holding wires in place (I think they broke it but were making up stories so they didn’t have to pay). So now they're telling me I need to replace the hydraulic system for 8k. Since I bought extended warranty and was 2 weeks into it, Nissan had to send their master tech to approve. When the tech came he noticed there is an issues with the roof itself as well, so now they said the entire roof had to get replaced at $19,800k warranty cost. The warranty department said that since my car is only worth 24k I've pretty much used up my extended warranty since the nissan warranty cannot pay out more than car is worth. They ordered the roof from Japan I think. They put the new roof in and told me not to open it for a week until the new material gets set in. After using the roof a few times I started noticing the storage lid rubbing the fifth bow when opening and closing.

The dealership ordered and installed new bungee cords per the nissan bulletin below. Go
Nissan TSB Bulletin: NTB14-063
370Z ROADSTER; STORAGE LID RUBS THE FIFTH BOW WHEN OPENING THE SOFT TOP

After getting the car back with the new bungee cords installed the sides and middle are hitting each other (lid hitting roof). See videos below.

2014 nissan 370z roadster convertible top problems - opening top (NTB14-063)
https://youtu.be/UC9k-5qa1Vo

2014 nissan 370z roadster convertible top problems - closing top (NTB14-063)
https://youtu.be/SsnyQJviv5c

Went back to dealership, they said they tried everything and don’t know what else to do. Nissan sent their engineer and few weeks of sitting at the dealer Nissan said they found multiple z's in united states with this same exact problem. Nissan Corporate called me and said that Nissan engineers are working on designing a fix for this. This will take a few months since they will need to pass inspection and get approvals. Told me not to open my roof until this is fixed. They said since it's winter in Ohio I shouldn’t be opening roof anyway and to wait until Spring of 2019 at which point they hope to have found a resolution for this. So my baby is stored away in the garage for the winter. Really hope they can figure out a fix this spring .

Another thing I noticed that after them installing the bungee cords, the roof is somewhat lopsided now. Passenger roof covers the window (top of window hides underneath the roof). But driver side window closes next to the roof meaning the top of the window doesn’t go under the roof but outside of the roof. Luckily seems there is enough pressure that there shouldn’t be any leaks between window and roof but still looks very weird.

Let me know if anyone has come across a similar issues with their roof. The sad part is that I got a new $20k roof that doesn’t work right.
vman12 is offline   Reply With Quote