370z roof won't move warning light on

scottishpaul

Well, after a couple of months of playing around and getting very educated about this problem, I still have an electric/power roof that doesnt work! As well as the associated problems of the visible and audible warning light/buzzer, and the electric trunk release not working (all because the CPU thinks the roof is in mid cycle).

I took it to a local convertible specialist who looked at a few items and ended up taking it into Nissan for a CPU diagnostic (costs ~$250 FYI). The diagnosis from Nissan (dealer) was an error at the "5th bow assembly". Nothing mechanical, but either a broken wire in the harness somewhere, or a problem with the CPU itself. Either way, the recommendation from Nissan was a complete replacement roof kit (roof, harness, hydraulics, CPU, etc). Estimate was for $15,850 plus $1,200 labor. Needless to say I am not spending $18k on a 2010 car!

Nissan USA were particularly useless when I raised this with them and basically said: out of warranty, tough luck. Did a little research on this one and apparently this is a known problem with 370Z cars with Nissan with apparently around 600 cases in the past 5 years. And apparently very few people go with the Nissan suggested $18k repair, not surprisingly.

Really not happy about the situation, at all!

PS - there are manual processes to: 1) open the trunk from inside the car using a key (behind the passenger seat); 2) open the hood manually using the cable release in the trunk and a socket set to release the roof up by the rear view mirror - this method is recommended by Nissan only for emergencies to open of close the roof in the event of electrical failure, but what the hell - I now have a Wrangler with a manual lift off roof and a 370Z with the same!