There seems to have been several owners who have experienced problems with the roof not operating properly. Barring leaving articles in the trunk or letting the battery die there still seems to be the danger of the roof not opening or closing fully when one is on the road and miles from a dealer who can do the re-learn. Of course the car can't be towed or driven with the trunk or roof partially open for risk of damage. And if the battery disconnect fails to reset it, an enclosed car hauler is the only option to get it to the nearest dealer safely which could be far away and enclosed trailers are not always readily available.

I have seen the Consult 3 programmer for sale online or it may even be available from Nissan that could be used on the road for an owner to at least manually close the roof and then possibly do the re-learn themselves. Any thoughts on this? Having had this happen once on the road to our 2010 with a fully charged battery and nothing interfering with the operation it is a cause of concern - always wondering if the roof is going to work or not. No dealer I have talked to seems willing to help unless they are providing the re-learn and charging for it. There has to be a solution for this roof problem. As a relatively new owner, as far as I can see it is the only flaw in an otherwise truly great car that does everything else very well.

 

While a Consult-3 would be good to have, it is not cheap. You need to have a compatible laptop, software, and the vehicle interface (VI). Used VI's are hard to come by and you have to wary as there are many cheap, Chinese clones that halfass work out there.

Besides, do you really want to lug around a laptop and interface all of the time for a "what if" situation?

 

Good to know about the cheap imitations - thank you. It's nice to get some information. We usually carry a laptop on road trips anyway to look for restaurants, hotels etc. I'd pay for the legit version for the "what if". I don't know what it would cost. I've seen around 600.00 USD. But the cost of a re-learn by the dealer and renting a truck and enclosed trailer just once would just about cover it. And the peace of mind would be worth a lot too.

I'd love to know percentage of G37 convertible owners out there that have had a roof problem through no fault of their own and no battery failure. Maybe it's something like five percent and I'm worried for nothing. Or it's just a fact of life when you own a retractable hardtop - any brand. It's just an awful feeling to have the roof not close (and the battery disconnect doesn't work) miles from a dealer let alone trying to line up a truck and trailer as the rain clouds roll in.

 

I have a 2009 g37s convertible. We are having battery drain issues. From what I have learned the car has to go to the dealer to get the top re learn function done to stop it from draining the battery. The top loses its position and the module looks for something when the cars off and drains the battery! I am trying to figure out what to do!!!

 

I bought the consult3 kit from online from cnautotool.com. I bought the version with the VI and the SSD with consult already installed and ready to work with this VI. I already had a panasonic toughbook, but I believe any laptop that can run windows 7 would work.

And I have used it to diagnose the same top issues you are describing. My plan is to get a smaller laptop that I can somehow keep under the front seat or find somewhere to keep it out of the way. Keeping it in the spare tire location is a non starter in case the top gets stuck down.

Another benefit to this path was I burned 2 new $13 key fobs using the consult3 after I found you don't need the security card to do it. Just make a few changes to the .ini file for consult.

Feel free to shoot me any questions about the setup.

 

I desperately want your help with the same issue.

I've got the same console three software but it is a total mind **** to use.

I've been trying to do a relearn on my top because it fails to move two arms before trying to pull out the back deck cover thing, and it keeps slamming past the two arms damaging itself (the deck lid I think is the part name).

 

I think we have a new member who might be able to give us a hand at learning consult3 - @1998corolla - would you be able to write up the steps, maybe with some screenshots? I'll buy you a beer?
It would be really good to have a functional roof guide here as a sticky.

 

If someone was able to save me a 2.5 hour drive there and back to a dealership, plus the time spent there waiting around, all so they can run consult software I'd buy them more than a beer.

I missed all last summer with the top down over this. It's depressing, and my wife misses it too and has begun to resent me for buying a convertible I can't even use properly lol

 

I'm in the same boat - I tend to have 3 roof relearn appointments per year minimum. At this point I'd be down to paying for the full consult setup if someone would be willing to write out instructions.

 

If this exists already and I can't find it, I'd love to see it. If someone wants to write one up, I'll throw cash. Let's start a fund. I'll throw 20 down.

 

https://www.2carpros.com/questions/hard-reset
this has two images that might help someone who knows more than me

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...JgEqLBXqZ103tk
this file seems to go into some depth but I'm terrified I'll do more harm than good

 

While I am 100% in favor of folks diagnosing and repairing their own cars, this roof orchestra is one that requires a STRONG sense of "knowing what you're doing." Even though this is a Japanese car, the roof mechanism is German- so you already know it is going to be a nightmare. As member Crunk alluded, with the CONSULT tool, you can do more harm than good to not only the roof mechanism, but also to the car itself.

While a standard reset/re-learn is normally a simple 2-step process that takes less than 5 minutes, things get complicated if the roof stops mid-cycle. There are 42 different steps/states that this car performs when opening/closing the roof. You have to know where in the sequence that the roof stopped and what is the next step before continuing. This is somewhat explained in the pdf file linked above. For anyone who is going to work on this roof, download the RF (Roof) section of the factory manual and FULLY familiarize yourself with the 42 different states before you plug the tool in and start pressing buttons. AND, have a competent battery changer hooked up while diagnosing/ repairing the roof. 99% of the problems with this roof usually occur as a result of a weak battery.

Let me reiterate, none of this rocket science and if the dealership techs can figure it out so can most folks here. Just know how deep the water is before you dive in head first and find yourself way in over your head.