Hard top noise

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
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  1. My model of MX-5 is: __NC 2008
  2. I’m based near: __GRIMSBY
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: _HARD TOP NOISE.
    When the roof is lowered or raised there is a clicking noise which seems to be coming from passenger side of roof space.
    Thanks David D
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Check the Chrome-dome Allen-key bolts have not worked loose. This happens a lot! I eventually put some thread-lock on mine, problem cured.
The arrows point to them, a pic for each side

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There is a silver coloured dome headed bolt on each side of the deck mechanism. These bolts hold the cogs in mesh and must stay tight to work. It sounds like one or both of yours is loose.
You will require an Allen key to tighten these bolts.

Richard.

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Hi Richard, thanks for your help. I found these bolts but they where tight and could only put half a turn on them. The noise is still there.

David

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Hi , thanks for your help. The bolts where tight and I put half a turn on them but the noise is still there.

Thanks
David

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Does the noise happen as the deck moves or when the main roof moves?
Has the roof caught on anything or hit anything stored in the roof well between the boot and seats?

Richard.

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The chrome dome bolts are for the deck.
There is a second set of motors and gears for the roof, and being lower down these are much more difficult to get to. However they rarely go wrong and are not normally touched because they are hidden by the quarter panel trim behind the seats. It could be they just need a touch of grease on the exposed cogs.

If you really want to get into it have a look at the webarchive backup of the Mellens website (mellens itself seems to be dead)
exterior_trim.pdf covers the PRHT
interior_trim.pdf covers the panels etc that need to be removed for access

If you want to download all the rest of the pdf manuals for the car (but US centric) look in the index

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Hi , it’s the deck .

David

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Do the teeth on the cogs on your deck look similar to the ones in photos posted by RichardFX, in other words do yours have grease on them and are your teeth flat on the top and is the thickness of the metal the same?

Richard.

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Anything like the sound towards the end of this vid? - https://youtu.be/JHKHk6SNsgA

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Hi Aaron, yes it is but not as loud.

David

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Hi , yes they do, there is grease on them and there is wear on the teeth.

Thanks

David

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I suspect that the wear maybe the source of your noise. It’s worth double checking the dome head bolt. Do you have a socket set with Allen key adaptors you could try tightening the bolt a bit more. It is often reported that these dome bolts are tight but using a tool that’s more substantial than an Allen key/wrench may pinch the joint up a little more.

Richard.

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The video I posted is my own car. The noise is 100% coming from the part the camera focuses on (the clip thing that moves and secures the roof in-place when it’s down). I’m yet to figure out what causes it. Sometimes the noise doesn’t happen and sometimes it’s very loud, to the point where I think something is about to snap/break.

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The ‘Roof Hook’.

This is held down by a cable operated by the passenger side motor that moves the deck panel. If the cable guide has become damaged or the cables are working lose, or something around there, that is a possible source of your noise. See that exterior-trim.pdf I linked to before, but pay attention to the cable.

Here’s a pic of the cable and one of its adjustments.

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Hi, there is a little bit of play in the cable - say quarter of an inch of side to side movement . When the roof hook is released at the top of the screen the roof moves down without touching the dash switch, is this normal?

David

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No.

Mazda decrees that the roof etc should only move while one of the buttons is pressed, AND the parking brake is on, AND the boot is properly shut, AND it is not in gear, AND the ignition is on. Otherwise it beeps various alarm calls, like a demented bird, for a few seconds before giving up and sulking.

However these caveats can be over-ridden by various means (or faults). The usual (expensive) addition to the PRHT is a Smarttop module, (I don’t have one). Do you have one of these installed? If so I can’t help.

Regarding the cable. Mine does not have any play. I assume there is a spring associated with it to push up the seat-back Roof Hook, but I have not needed to study the adjustments in the pdf in any detail, since mine is working.

When all else fails, read the instructions; this cuts out the Chinese Whispers effect.

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Hi David, that isn’t how it’s supposed to work? Pressing the button on the roof catch and releasing the catch should only do that. Then, by pressing the ‘down’ button on the dash, the roof should start to unfold. At any point, if you let go of the button, the roof opening cycle will stop until you press and hold the down button again. On completion of the whole cycle, a bleep is heard and you can stop pressing the button. Sounds like something is amiss here?
Barrie

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Hi Richard, I do not have a Smarttop. I will try to take the play from the cable to see if that makes a difference.

David

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Hi Barrie, thanks for your input. I will try to adjust cable to remove the play to see if that makes a difference
David

1 Like