Hi-Step'n370z,
I have the same thing happening when opening the top, but only one side of the tonneau cover lightly clips the 5th bow frame. And mine is a 2016 with 9000 miles since new. What I've done is to open the top from the driver's door lock switch, and when the 5th bow folds up, I hold the 5th bow with my hand and pull it lightly towards the front of the car, just before the tonneau cover starts its upward movement. That way it doesn't clip.
Yeah, I know it shouldn't do that, and I really only have to move that bow about a quarter inch to get it to clear, but I'm not going to tackle the bungee repair until near the end of the factory warranty of year three. Its not a big deal, I can do the repair myself but would rather Nissan pay for it, and I don't want to lose the car for the time the service department will want to keep it for the repair, at least not during top down season. So we'll keep an eye on it as that time nears.
As far as the tech's stretching the bungee cords too much, ... I would doubt it, particularly when Subaru of American specifically told them to do it. As with any elastic product, over time they are going to stretch and not be as good as when new.
You have to keep in mind as well that when the top is up that bungee cord is fully stretched. Leave the top up for a long time, and the entire top will get used to staying in that position. So the first few times you open and close it, things will begin to free up, just like my old knees first thing in the morning.
Its a catch 22 ... leave the top open and the bungee cords don't get stretched, but the top wrinkles, and during long storage mice like to make homes in the folded sections (over winter storage), ...... or leave the top up, stretch the bungee cords, lose elasticity of them, so the tonneau cover may clip on opening, but the mice won't do $2000 damage to the cloth top during storage periods. (I found this out on my 1954 MG TF during a two week late fall storage. The devils chewed four folded sections in one spot, leaving 4 finger sized holes spaced 8 inches apart when the top was up. Repair was an entire new cloth top.)
The bungee cord design was doomed to failure from the first, in my opinion. They should have come up with another solution. But it is what it is. You may well find that with more use, your issue may well correct itself.
In your case, you seem to have the right people doing what they can to fix your issue. PLEASE, PLEASE, keep us in the loop and let us know how it works out. Being there myself, I most curious to see the end result. One thing for sure ... the just over $100 a piece Nissan charges for each bungee cord is way out of line.
Gene
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