Road Noise with PRHT hard top up

[Tezzax5]

Do PRHTs have drains, or is it only the soft tops?

There are drains are fitted to both.

With the soft top you need to use a medium sized box to wedge between the soft top so it doesn't fully open.

Same deal "clean from the top working down"

The big forum has some PDF's that explain the process a little better than i have written.

[Garry]

If the NC folding hardtop is the same as the soft top then there's very little sound proofing used in the area between the seats and the boot so I would expect some good gains could be made in that area. But you will need to remove all the trim from the seats back to get to it. Road noise reduction has never been high on the MX5 priority list and from the reviews I've read so far nothing has changed with the ND. Mazda seems to struggle with it in all their products. The Mazda3 in particular has always scored poorly in this area in reviews.

The road noise from my NA8 was unbearable. I used to breath a sigh of relief when the car stopped moving because the noise would stop. I added some more sound proofing and the noise became bearable but it was never quiet. I also added extra sound proofing to my NB when I got it and now with the hardtop on the interior noise levels are on par with a fixed roof vehicle of that vintage. So don't expect Lexus noise levels but you should be able to make it better than it is now.

[KevGoat]

I never realised the PRHT's had drains, never really thought about it to be honest! ... But yeah, they can allow a lot of noise to intrude. My NB8A had completely open drains, no valve flap thingy at all, and it took me ages to work out where all the noise was coming from. Thought my diff was stuffed! In the end, a couple of small pieces of sound proofing cut to shape and just sitting loose above the drains so that they didn't affect the drainage, and this fixed one of my noise problems. Had forgotten all about that one until mentioned ...

[Mr Morlock]

do the quick and easy back to back test and then if the car is noisier look for the cause eg tezzas suggestion. I know a few mates with NCs and none are complaining about noise and the prht has been the best albeit only seller in recent years. Would be interested to know how the outcome.

[Stevem]

Drains are clear, in fact it looks like the previous owner must have cleaned and vacuumed inside the PRHT storage area regularly as there is no dust or debris in there. I intend to meet up with other owners and compare the level of sound with the lid up, if it's normal then I shall just move on and get used to it.

Thanks for all the comments, I shall report back when I have researched some more.