Mazda have now stated a mass production change for this concern so cars produced after a certain date (can’t remember that date) will not be affected.
edit: It’s May 2016 production, so expect cars delivered after around August 2016 to not be affected.
My car was delivered in February this year. I will have to keep an eye on it. There is no real evidence of anything rubbing. Anyway I have 2 1/2 years to get it sorted if anything happens.
So got the car back and all looks good so far. Roof feels a little stiff but not difficult to move. Took the whole 5 days to get the car back, at one point the seats were taken out! But all feels good and the sun is shining. I’ll keep checking the clearance to make sure it doesn’t start ‘creeping’ back towards the hoops.
I always open both the mk1 (NA) and mk4 (ND) from outside the car. I have yet to find a way of putting the mk1 hood cover on whilst sat in the car.
I am waiting for the parts to do my ND to come in. The dealer said it would take 2 days to do. (new hood and hoops)
We had ours done yesterday and now have about 5mm clearance. My wife dropped the car off and picked it up and didn’t quiz them about what was involved, so who knows? They were also supposed to have fixed a rattle when the roof is up, but we won’t check that until it rains .
I had my roof fix done a week or so ago and was somewhat disappointed with the result. It doesn’t appear to have made much difference when closing from a seated position. The gap still varies anywhere from 5mm to 1mm to the hoop and on one occasion i’m sure it was touching the hoop still on one side. I do try to push the hood towards the back of the car rather than just down when lowering. To add to all this when driving now with the hood in the latched down position there’s a little rattle coming from around the catch mechanism area and occurs whenever you are going over any sort of bumpy road surface. It didn’t do this before the fix!
So I booked the car back in and had it looked at yesterday. Down at the dealership I pointed out to the tech exactly what I thought the problem was and where the rattle was coming from. Their fix was to fit sound deadening strips somewhere around this area but has had zero effect. I do get the feeling this is a complete bodge job for what is a design fail. Deep breath and back on the phone Monday…
Paul.
All this faffing around with washers and spacers and dismantling half the interior is a very poor way of trying to solve this fundamental design flaw.
A pair of slimmer garnishes ( how I really dislike that word! ) for the roll hoops would solve the problem.
I note that someone on a German website has taken a grinder to their hoop covers which appears to have resulted in sufficient clearance
but does not look very good from a cosmetic view. Perhaps they could be dipped or carbon wrapped after grinding.
Regards
Paul. Sorry to hear of your problems. As I have said before, I have yet to hear a satisfactory explanation of how the spacer fix is installed. Speaking as a Design Engineer the one explanation that I have heard sounds like a complete bodge. As Mr Swinnerton suggest, and I have stated before, the only proper fix is to re-profile the black plastic roll hoop covers to increase the clearances. I cannot understand why Mazda have not done this. It must be far more cost effective than stripping out the interior to fit spacers (which to all accounts takes up to a week) and replacing hoods.
My car which was delivered in February (therefore pre-production fix I think) does not seem to suffer the problem even though I always lower/raise the hood from inside the car. One thing that might be worth pointing out is that when I received the car I had difficulty pushing the hood down to latch from within the car as the new (improved!) counterbalance springs were too strong. I had the dealer adjust the springs (I don’t know how) to ease the lowering of the hood. Raising it was no issue. It could be possible that the over-strong counterbalance springs have a tendency to push the hood forwards when down therefore reducing the clearance to the roll hoops. Just a theory as I don’s seem to have an issue.
Regarding the rattle there are a couple of possible sources:
Check the cubby hole between the seats. The enclosure is a pair of mouldings that form a clamshell. You can see it through the rear window. The click tab fasteners that hold the two halves together are very weak and the mouldings separate very easily. I have put had to put tie wraps around the two mouldings to keep them together. A difficult job with the lack of access behind the seats but it is possible!
I also had a rattle from the long horizontal panel that runs along the back of the bulkhead that the wind stopper attaches too. This was very loose. I stuffed foam up underneath this panel at both ends near what felt like the mounting bosses and the looseness and rattle went away.
Best of luck getting it fixed.
Thanks very much, I’ll check the points out.
No luck up to press. Simply, when driving with the hood latched down there’s the rattle. As soon as I unclick the hood loose it stops. Seems like the issue is surrounding the catch mechanism. I tried introducing a thin piece of plastic where the catch presses onto the 2 soft black rubber bumps to reduce play but no luck. Guess I’m back to the dealership. Thanks again for the help.
Paul.
[quote=First rider off]
Hi Grumpy Badger/Pep. I would really appreciate if you could let me know about the method used to fix the problem. Would it be possible to let me know where the spacers are actually fitted and how they improve the hood clearance issue. I don’t think my car is too bad. I would have thought that if the problem was endemic, Mazda would recall the MX5’s sold so far and fix the hood rubbing issues before that many hoods got damaged and had to be replaced. This would be the most economical solution for Mazda. The only reason I can think that Mazda have not done this is if it depends on the manufacturing tolerances of the parts that affect the clearance when assembled, which could account for some cars being more badly affected than others.
Sorry for the slow reply, been away on a road trip around some of the alpine passes with the MX. Took Nunns 2 days to do the fix (they managed it in a day but felt the hood was looking a little baggy so took it off and started again!) Dont know where the spacers fit so sorry cant help you there. So far everything is okay and I now have a gap between the hood and hoops all the time ( something that was very variable before the fix) Hood was up and down plenty of times during the 2,700 mile trip with no issues.
Noticed today that mine is doing this. Both hoops scuffed and friction burns to the front of the roof. I was a huge brand ambassador for Mazda but having had my car in for grinding from the gearbox for the last bloody week to now have this issue is an absolute joke. Not impressed at all. I love the car but after 1 month of ownership it’s not inspiring me with confidence! And don’t relish the prospect of a week without my car while they mess about bodging it. Very annoyed
Had the same roof issue with mine. Local dealer fixed it in a day and since then it’s been OK. I have been offered a new roof cover by Mazda whenever I want it as mine has rubbing marks too but I’m going to wait for a bit so the garage can practice on someone else first! I’ve also had the squeaky windows/rattling door problems. These have been fixed recently and seem to be OK so far. You’re right though … there have been too many issues with the ND for many. I usually wait a year before getting a new model but this time I didn’t - but it sounds like waiting wouldn’t necessary have helped if you just got yours. Still love the car but disappointed with the quality control/design fault issues.
Took mine in for a new hood on Tuesday picked her up on Wednesday morning, job done. Should have no more problems as I always raise and lower the hood as per the manual, from outside the car. The problem was with the sales staff as my car was a demonstrator.
It’s shocking I’ve not known so many problems with a mazda in forever. I’m gonna ring round dealers see which ones can do it quickest I think
I’ve had the same problem with my roof. I have had the car a year now and put 12,000 miles on it, but it’s been well loved and I always open and close it from outside the car. I have contacted my local dealer (Nottingham) and they’ve booked it in to look at. While it’s in they are also going to look at a rattle from the drivers side door.
I’ve not been that impressed with the quality so far I have to say…
Hopefully it will be a quick fix, but I will let you know how I get on.
First annual service today, requested a few things be looked at;
Booked in in October for
fitment of hood alignment kit
replacement hoop garnish
replacement weather strips on windows (squeak like buggery when wet)
replacement seat belt guides (belt keeps popping out)
First photo (poorly focused) is of the replacement seat belt guide.
Second photo shows the hood as put up from the drivers seat which now leaves a gap from the hoop garnish (Mazda term…)
Nearside hoop garnish has been replaced.
Also replaced though not pictured are the weather seal strips that go between the door and the window glass and hopefully will not now squeal loudly when wet…
Thanks for posting this update IanH
I have kept an eye on this thread as my ND suffered the dreaded hoop rub. I took it to my local Mazda garage who had an elderly guy try to take photos with something that resembled a Fisher Price toy. My husband ended up taking some decent pics and we then emailed the guy at the Mazda Garage who then sent the photos on to Mazda. Apparently, according to Mazda, my roof does not need replacing and the hoop garnishes are not scratched enough to warrant replacement.
My ND was an ex demo and the damage occurred at the original dealer. I have to say that throughout the summer with the constant dropping of the roof, that it has now settled a little and does sit away from the hoops. The roof has found it’s niche but it’s always put in place from outside the car just in case!
After hearing some of the horror stories about car rattles and bodged fixes with washers that don’t really make any difference, I have decided not to pursue it at this stage. At least the car is still under warranty!