Yeh man I agree with you. The cost of getting a lawyer, the time required to fight the lemon law, notwithstanding the fact that you will still have to pay some depreciation to get an '06, I would rather pay a shop to fix the problem for good if there is such a solution.

 

stop by dealer today, they said Nissan now said "it is NORMAL" for this kind of stuff. They already replace one and they don't want to do another because it will raise a red flag. They advise me to wait before the warranty come up or it getting worse then they will replace again. Kinda sad.

 

That sounds like some BS to me. How much seperation do you have and how long did it take to show up?

 

The point where the material has lifted to where it is tearing the adjacent panel should be sufficient to warrant a replacement.

 

Do you know what seems to scare the dealer more than anything? Say this to the service department-"I'm calling NNA and getting their opinion on this matter" That seems to get me action real quick at the dealer.

 

My 04 ZR had both the pin holes and a split seam, dealer replaced, then had lots of other problems as a result of improper/incorrect replacement of new top.

 

That is exactly what I'm afraid of. A "fix" of one thing ends up with more issues. I am asking if they can fix the top instead of replacing it. We'll see what happens.

 

Here's my horror story on my first top replacement.
2004 PPW and saw it separating at 19k miles.

Dealer says no problem and schedules an appt. 3 wks out on a Monday. Say that it takes two days to change out the cloth. I'm a little concerned out of the gate because the dealer says "We've never done one of these before. It's our first." I have now learned what to do when somebody says that: run as fast as possible to another dealer.

So I show up on schedule and they put me in a POS 2002 Grand Prix Ex-Avis rental car for a loaner. Hey, it's only two days, right. I can deal with that.
I call my favorite service writer at the dealer late that first day 'just in case' they managed to get it done. Nope. Needed to let the top come up to room temp (it's 35 degree days at the time) so they didn't start on it until late.
I call the dealer again noon on day 2 and talk to my least favorite service writer. He tells me the particular tech that is to do the change had to 'finish up some other jobs first'.
(Sidenote: I already had in my hands the TSB and installation instructions and know that new rollbar covers are required and have to be ordered separately.)
Day 3 - Svc Manager admits that there were some parts that they had no way of knowing were needed so they haven't started yet.
Day 4 - Top assembly off the car. Svc Manager says when they finally looked at the replacement top they found a flaw in it worse than in the original. Since I'm going out of town on business the following week, I suggest that they keep it and get another cloth on the way and do the job only once instead of making me come back and going thru the entire process again. Assuming of course they will get the top on order with a couple day delivery and get at it early the following week.
Day 11 - I come back from the business trip a day early and give the dealer a call on returning to town. "Well, we just got the new top in this morning and boy, this is a tough job!".
Day 12 - End of day on Friday. Drop by dealer and find tech scratching head with top in place but mechanisms/toneau out of time in some way. I tell mgr that I'm going on weekend trip in wife's SUV and isn't he lucky. I tell service manager that while the Grand Prix is certainly a lovely car and all, on Monday, if mine isn't fixed, we're going to be dragging a '06 coupe off the showroom floor and I won't care if they keep mine all winter. I suggest that I've not seen anyone working overtime to get the job done and perhaps somebody might ought to take this seriously.
Day 14 - Two weeks to the day after dropping my Z off for a simple top swap, I drop by dealer on way to work. Car is not in it's seemingly permanent stall in the shop. Go to the service desk and there she sits. Even washed it (probably only because they had to leak test it and the dirt streaks from the accumulated dust made it look pretty bad).

If this top separates, reckon I need to go elsewhere??? Of course, the dealer always sends the little card after service that says "If there is any reason why you can't give us excellent numbers on the Nissan survey to come to you about your recent service, please let us know". I like my dealer generally but I can't imagine what they could do to get good marks ... OR.... am I just being a too-demanding ******* here?????

Thoughts anyone???

 

If you need to do it again, at least you know they are experienced. And they can order all the right parts, check them all before you drop your car off.

 

Good news, I finally went to the dealer today (took me long enough), and found out something interesting. The manager told me that there is a new design on the top, as in there is a third style top for our cars. He said that they had to look far and wide to get the part number for my top when they replaced it the last time, but I will be getting the new design when they replace it. I'll report on what is different if I can find it.
On a lighter note, I had a guy who had just bought an 06 roadster standing over my shoulder while I was discussing my top with the manager. I caught up to him as he was about to leave and let him know the car wasn't bad mechanically, it was just the top material. He told me he was glad he didn't just make a major mistake in buying the car, as he was worried during my conversation.

 

Is the third top design incorporated into the 06's?

 

Please let the group know as soon as possible your outcome on this third design, including part number please!!!!

 

they are MOD friendly dealer and all the guys there really nice. Just don't want to do that. hehehe

 

I have the exact same problem on my 04 with 9,500 miles / 26 months old that is garage kept. There is a small circular hole where the top material has separated and light shines through. Anybody know if this should be replaced under warranty?

 

Yes, you should get it fixed under warranty through the Dealership. Mine was also garage kept and on average I only drive it once or twice a week (50 miles) and my top end up having a hole in it. Definitely a defect. Glad it was covered under warranty because it would have cost me almost $2000. There is some discussion on this forum about the third generation convertible canvas as being better. You might want them to replace it with the newer version of the top. Not sure if they replaced mine with the newer version but my top does look different....seems to have more stiching.

 

Would it be possible to post some pics of your new top so I can compare my stiching & etc. Also some of the guys that own the '06 ZR? Thanks!

 

it's also depend on how many times you open and close per day. For the people from the west coast like CA, we open and close all the time so it wear out faster.

 

Yea, i'd be good to see if the stiching in the rear has been upgraded with the new tops.

 

Went to have my top inspected. Dealer ordered a new top under warranty. When I asked him if Nissan has changed the top material he said he didn't know but the part number for the new top is an updated part number. There were only 2 part numbers for 2004-2006 convertible tops, one for black and one for blue. I will let you know and take some pics after it's all done.

 

Could you post the part number from the top they replaced your's with?
From my research I have been able to confirm that the old top cover assembly (not complete top assembly mechanism) 97150-CF000 has been superseded by a new part number 97150-CE40A. Not sure if the 3rd. generation has a different part number.