Anyone else have wear holes in their top?

Here's the deal. I've got a 01 w/ 42,000 mi and I just noticed that I have a few wear marks on my top. They aren't quite holes just yet, but they are about half way there.

The first one I noticed was on the outside, drivers side by the rear top corner of the window. This one is already through first layer. It kinda looks like the "weave" separated. Finding that first hole made me inspect the entire top.

I then found two more on the inside. Both in the same place, different side of the car. You'll notice that the inner side of the top feels more like a fabric compared to the outer side. If you look inside your car, you'll find a thin plastic piece towards the rear, upper corner of the window. It looks like every time I put the top down, it's wearing it through.

Also, when I run my hand over the top, I can definitely feel a difference in thickness in these areas. Is this normal?? If not, will my extended warrantee cover the repairs and if so, will they just patch the areas or will they replace the entire top?

I feel within a matter of time these will definitely become holes. I'm a little disappointed. The funny thing is that the top is up most of the time, except for summer evenings (Don't flame me, I'm fair skinned and would burn in the 115 degree daytime heat here in Vegas!)

Any help is greatly appreciated

Mine is the same year; however, I only have about 5700 miles on it and I have had my top down since May (except for when I wash it). I don't anticipate having a problem for quite a while since I'm not constantly putting it up and down. Maybe you should take it to the dealer to see if you can get a new top.

I have a 2002 S and I have less than 3200 miles and less than 30 times the roof has been down, and I am noticing spot's on roof already. I asked the dealership and they said it was normal? Does not sound normal to have to replace the top in less than 50,000 miles.

I wonder if this wear is actually caused while the top is UP at speed from vibration caused by the air. My car is a year old and a daily driver, and I put the top down almost everytime I drive it and up every time I park and I don't see any signs of wear yet. Just a thought.

There is another thread on this. (which is what I was searching for)

I have the wear spots and one side is now turning into a hole. I've taken it into the dealership to have the service manager look at it. He said they will be replacing my top. He's looking into the glass window retro-fit before I take it in for the replacement. I also brought a picture in of a '02 top. Honda is now putting an extra piece of material there. Looks like the cat is out of the bag Honda...

BTW - My car is a daily driver and I just hit 30K yesterday.

Here is the link to the other thread. It has some pics in it.

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=77993


This thread shows the retro-fit, but more importantly shows a pic of the added material to protect it in the future.

http://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...50&pagenumber=2

Oh BTW....another friend of mine also has a hole developing on his at about 20K miles. I think you will see more cases of this in the daily drivers than anywhere else. I would suggest an extended warranty to you folks that use it as a weekend toy. I don't see how this can be avoided if you use your top.

Make sure the top is clean. Dirt in the creases of the folded top rub each other as you drive, causing the wear. I personally keep a california duster in the car and always use it before putting the top down. No signs of wear after a full summer's use.

It's not wear caused by a dirty top. The hole is coming from the inside out. Nothing in there to get dirty. It's a crease that keeps getting recreased when you put your top down. Kinda like bending a wire back and forth. It will eventually break.

Look at the pic I mentioned and you will also see that Honda has made a change to the '02 top in the exact same spot.

OK I will. Thanks for the info.

One other thing I do, at least when I'm taking my time putting down the top in my garage, is go back several times to make sure the folds are nice and neat while putting down the top. No hard corners.

Maybe my analysm will pay off.

Yep, after seing this thread, I went out and washed my S2000 and low and behold, I can see the wear happening on mine a little too. Mine is three years old and has 33k miles. I guess when I go to the dealership next, I'll have to bring this up.

I recently noticed my top had some wear marks too. As stated previously, you can feel the difference in thickness with your bare hand. I have had mine since 08/00 and have 63k miles of daily use. The convertible top is down 95% during my drives and comes up when I park. I'm wondering how much longer I have before it becomes a hole that leaks rain.

Joe

That's funny that this post was brought back up, because I'm going in tomorrow to have the Regional Service guy look at it. I had to wait a month for him to come back out here. The sad thing is that my normal "cool" service manager wouldn't even look at the car. He just stated that it's normal wear and tear and that it's not covered under warranty. I had to take it to another dealer just to get it looked at. He of course said very friendly and politely that I had to wait until the Regional came into town. It looks like I might have a new "cool" service manager. Oh well, I guess I'll know tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Oh boy, my first real problem. I have a relatively low mileage S2000, only 5500 on a 2001 (the guy that owned her before me never drove her, I take her everywhere!) and I'm noticing spots where it rubs against that piece of plastic. I'm not worn through, but there are definite score marks on the fabric.

It may be a futile effort, but I just covered the corner of the plastic edge with layers of electrical tape. If you feel the edge of the plastic, you will notice that it has a relatively sharp edge to it; hopefully the tape will ease if not stop the wear completely.

It seems that this plastic piece helps guide the fabric as the top is being lowered. Too bad, I'd almost like to take a pair of scissors to it and trim it down.

Edit: I can't believe that Honda is trying to tell you that this is normal wear and tear. Whatever you do, do not accept that bullshit answer. It's a design flaw in the 2000 and 2001 models, simple as that.

Here is the pic that shows it all. See how they changed it?

Damn....I just checked mine. My top looks new on the outside, but the inside is wearing. This sucks. What can be done about this???? What are the dealerships doing when this happens. My car has about 24k.

I noticed there is a piece of plastic sewn into the area, I guess it helps to keep the bend from being really sharp?

Am I missing anything else?

It's obvious that convertible tops should not have wear holes from folding down after only a few years. Honda clearly realized this problem and corrected it in the '02 top. Earlier, a bunch of us with the plastic window sent letters to honda to try to get them to share the costs of the upgrade to the 02 top due to poor visibility. Sure, I knew it had and plastic window when I bought it and I wouldn't be able to see out of it very clearly. I can take honda's "sorry, but nothing we can do" response since I knew it how it was going to be in the beginning. But if the top is going to wear a hole in itself, well this is a completely different matter. Something needs to be done to bring this to their attention, when I get home tonight, I'm going to check out my top and look for wear marks. What they need to do is just give us 00 and 01 owners the 02 top and be done with it. Our tops are clearly problematic. This is unacceptible! Sorry for the rant, but something needs to be done...

Sorry, but I just checked my '02 and that piece of plastic is still there -- right behind the diagonal brace in the picture a couple of messages back. My impression was that it was maybe designed to keep the top from rubbing on that metal part.

On my driver's side, it doesn't appear to be a problem. But on the passenger side, the plastic piece is putting a bit more tension on the top. I can see the edge of it pushing on the material when I look from outside the car. All that would be needed would be to somehow bend the plastic piece a fraction toward the inside of the car, and I think the problem would vanish. If it were metal, that would be pretty easy. But I don't know how to bend plastic.

I'll try to get some time this weekend to play with it a little. At this point, I don't know if it came that way from the factory, or is being gradually distorted each time the top folds.

--Steve

Steve, they made the plastic part larger to cover the area that is wearing on the older tops. For the older tops, it probably is a function of how many times the top is put up and taken down because there is nothing rubbing on the spot with the top up.

Hi All:

I would like to see this situation up close. If there is someone in Southern California that I can meet somewhere to look/photo please PM me.

Thanks,

Woodwork

top

Here is a picture of the top wear. The top creases at this point, then the plastic on the right side abrades the material from the inside.

PICT0007.JPG[/PHOTO]

Woodwork...I just checked mine using the flashlight-check (2000MY, 51k mi, frequent up'n'down use) and it has the vertical crease wear hole
I'm going to the dealer tomorrow (probably Scott Robinson, I work in Torrance).

Strange.

14k miles, top up and down at least a few hundred times and no wear marks --- none.