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Hi - when cornering hard I experience a sharp creaking or cracking noise from the hardtop in the area of the rear of the roof panel/top of the window panel, presumably caused by body twisting or flexing. On examining the panel edges with the hardtop semi retracted I cannot see any witness marks although the noise suggests that there are some stress points. Has anyone else had this same problem, and any known way of alleviating it? Thanks - ColinW

Might be worth checking the TSBs for the relevant years: https://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/index.html

Thanks 93_Clubman for your reply - good suggestion and will check the TSB's.

Hi Colin

Did you find a solution for this? I’ve now dríven about 1200k’s in my “new to me” NC and I’m noticing the same kind of creaking noises from the PRHT when the roof is up and the road is rough. (Which all of the fun roads seem to be).

I checked through the service bulletins and didn’t find anything. I was thinking that maybe spraying all of the contact areas with silicon spray might help?

Brad, the NC section of the big forum might be worth a look: https://forum.miata.net/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=79

Thanks 93_Clubmn

I’ll check it out.

Buy a soft top.

Seriously this is one of the reasons why I would never buy a folding hardtop from any marque. Long term rattles and squeaks are inevitable.
The other is when it stops working.

I have a NC retractable hard to- no creaking issue. You could check a dealer workshop. These guys see more Mazdas than most individuals so they do pick up fixes or common complaints. Silicon spray or even soap and water might pick up the cause. Having had an Nb for 9 years with soft top which spent most of the time down ( I estimate 90%) I do find the retractable top significantly more practical and comfortable- easy up and and far more durable. Hard and retractable tops are the most popular- 350 and 370 soft tops- hideous and most Porsches on the road are hard tops.

The benefits if a PRHT far outweigh any potential downsides. Heaps better than a soft top.

bruce wrote:The benefits if a PRHT far outweigh any potential downsides. Heaps better than a soft top.

Until they cease to operate as intended. I'm in the soft top corner, simplicity at it's best.

Until someone cuts your roof open to steal the loose change in your console...

I'd swap for a PRHT or RF tomorrow if I could afford it .... I'm paranoid about where I take or park my SE for that very reason - the vulnerability of the soft top.

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bruce wrote:The benefits if a PRHT far outweigh any potential downsides. Heaps better than a soft top.

Except if it’s a track car where it’s extra weight in the worst possible place, and makes it harder to fit a roll bar, then a prht is a bad idea

when I was first looking for a MX5 Iinspected a vehicle close to the city of Melbourne - it was parked in a shed but not locked away. The guy was a doctor and he said one of the reasons he was selling related to multiple slashed soft tops and he said that people would do it just to see if there was any cash left in the vehicle. One slash and how much to replace - heaps. Soft tops also suffer and fail pretty quickly if they are not parked under cover.

bruce wrote:Until someone cuts your roof open to steal the loose change in your console...

My little car is never out of my sight.