Pic request: Hardtop side seal

[HarryB]

Got myself a nice headache, as my hardtop refuses to seal. I have tried every sort of adjustment possible, to (almost) no avail; it is waterproof, but I can hear air rushing by after the 120-130kph mark. The issue is where the door/window seal meets the car body. So I would like to see yours, if possible close-ups of this area, as I believe I am doing something wrong. Thanks!

[HarryB]

Worked my way out of the hardtop seal problem, so I think I should post it here for future reference. Here's what was the issue initially:



About 5mm gap between the HT side seal and the car body, which created an awful whistle past 120kph. I found a small store near my house which stocks any type/size of rubber seal possible, from simple flat or round rubber foam to make-specific seals and sell them by the length. I bought various versions, as they are useful as grommets as well. The one suitable here is a flat "ribbon", 40mm wide and about 10mm thick. I removed the HT seals, measured, cut and placed an approx. 50mm long piece on each side, beneath the bottom seal "foot", with the bolts going through it. This is how it looked when the seal was placed back:



And this is how it looks installed:



Still not perfect, but 100% better than before!

[HarryB]

Long overdue update! Since my troubles, I found a bargain on a blue HT which I could not pass, especially since my OCD annoyed me knowing my "fix". So I bought it and decided to sell the black one. In the process, I decided to swap over my 2-month old HT side seals from the black one, albeit the ones on the "new" HT were in pristine condition, just because. What I found out was that once swapped, I had the same issue!

Turns out that Mazda changed the design of the seals subtly at some point; however everywhere I looked, seals are sold as 99-05 spec. There are also a bunch of other little details I will go through an photograph tomorrow that are different between the two HTs.

[HarryB]

ΟΚ, time to document the differences between the two HTs, in case someone faces similar problems, since it took me more than 6 months and quite a lot of money to find out all this. As already mentioned my car is a 04 NB2. Regarding the HTs:

Both are OEM, bought used in good condition.

The black one is supposedly from a 01 car. I know it has a heated rear window, a headliner and a proper pigtail for my NB2, so I assume it is after 99. However, it has the "pointy" front catches tips, so it is up to 03, since Mazda changed those mid-2003. More on this subject in a while.

The blue one came from an early 03 car, and it is totally OEM.

Onto differences; the most obvious one is that the blue one uses Torx-head bolts for the catches, making them harder to strip, which was handy. Another difference can be found at the rear "feet" that keep the soft top in place.

Blue HT:


Black HT:


Front catch tips are also different. Mazda changed the design of their latch tips from pointy to blunt sometime at 2003. My car is a 2004, and the HT (and latches) were from an NB (supposedly 2001), so I blamed those and started looking for appropriate latch caps. Trouble began when I removed the actual latches in order to change the caps. As it seems, they are not interchangeable, as the metal part is exactly shaped like the cap, and the pointy ones are slightly longer. Therefore the blunt-edged one would not fit correctly.



Decided to ditch the bolt and reside to silicone glue to hold the cap in place and fill in the voids. This solved some rattling and squeaking, and made fitment slightly better. The real issue though were the side rubber seals. Back then I thought that my old ones had deformed and they were the issue; except they were not. Turns out that Mazda also changed the design of those bastards at some point as well, but before the latch tips.



The installed one is the one that came with the blue HT and it is PERFECT. The one in my hand is a brand new OEM replacement, sold as a 89-05 HT side seal. Thing is, they are not the same; they look identical, but if you look at the bottom "corner", the one installed is more prolonged.

Bottom line, after all this, my HT now is perfect. It seals perfectly, there's not one squeak or rattle and i LOVE it. IMO it worth all the hassle, however I thought I should post it here to save others from trouble.

Cheers and apologies for the long post!