As you can see, the carpet is coming free from the retaining strip at the edge and a section no longer stays secure under the trim of the door sill
I I’ve tried fitting it back under, but it only holds for a few days.
Does anyone have a solution? The carpet in otherwise in good shape and I don’t want to change it all.
There is a plastic retainer that is stapled to the carpet that clips over the body. I’ve removed the staples before now and then reattached the retainer using the removed staples to re-secure the carpet.
The trouble is, I think that the carpet is slightly too short so hands above the floor pan. I think some people add a bit of packing under the carpet to give it something to rest on. I can’t advise what to use to pack it I’m afraid. Maybe a few layer of sound deadening material.
Mazda issued a service bulletin on this in 1998;
I had the same issue with my 96, with the later felt carpet, and thought at first the carpet had shrunk, but I think the later cars are more affected, because Mazda used cheap felt in these later cars.
Carpet: Customer Interest
Interior - Carpet Pulls Loose at Side Trim Panel
S017/98
SHORT CARPET AT FRONT SIDE TRIM
APPLICABLE MODELS
All 1990-97 Miata
DESCRIPTION
The edge of the carpet comes loose from the bottom of the side trim panel causing a poor appearance. This is caused by the insulator pad beneath the
carpet becoming compressed over time resulting in a loss of thickness in the padding below.
Customers complaining of this concern should have their vehicle repaired using the following procedure.
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Verify customer complaint.
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Remove the scuff plate and the front side trim panel per the Workshop Manual section S (09).
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Pull up floor carpet to expose the insulator pad as shown.
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Using scissors, cut the existing pad leaving a forward leading edge of 130 mm (5.1 in.) on the driver-side and 185 mm (7.3 in.) on the
passenger-side as shown.
CAUTION:
Using a knife instead of scissors to cut pad may result in damage to the carpet.
- Position the new insulator pad in place of the removed padding. Make sure that the old and new padding do not overlap.