HankookS2K

Alright so even though this isnt hard to do, here is a tutorial to install new strikers. Why? Because I was bored and havent made a tutorial in awhile. I have a MY01 with soft top.

I still had the factory strikers on which had so much wear and tear from the convertible top that the top wasnt secured as tight as it should be against the windshield thus making lots of noise at highway speeds. So i ordered new HARDTOP strikers from hardtop guy for about 58 dollars shipped. (By the way thanks a lot for such fast shipping! received in 2 days!)

Here is the tutorial

Take off side garnish of windshield, these just pop off and slide right out.


Then take off your sun visors, which should be 1 screw each, then pull off the top panel. I didnt wanna take off the light so i just pulled off enough to access the strikers.


Here are my old strikers, notice all of the scraping and damage done to the striker



Then proceed to take off the strikers, it is 2 screws for each striker, since i didnt take off the whole panel for the top there was limited access for those screws so i just used a 90 degree angle bit. If you dont have a 90 degree angle bit then i would suggest taking off the whole panel to get a screw driver in there.

Here are the screws


90 Degree angle bit


then get your sexy new strikers!


Here is a comparison of the new ones and the old ones, the thing i found most unique about these was the thickness of the new strikers!






and a random pic of the screws used (u can order these from hardtopguy as well)


Basically its self explanatory from here, well the whole process is really self explanatory, but just put the new ones in and test it out!

After I installed them, I put the top up and at first it was kind of hard to latch them in because the new striker is so big, but after it latched it got easier and it felt like the top was super tight against the windshield. I went off to the highway and turned off my music, and its a NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE! It was so much quieter and so much more enjoyable! Hope this helps!

hatch4raceb16

You should add, that when re-installing those striker screws its a GREAT idea to lock-tite them. I have had mine come loose once, and read of alot of other people lock-titing them.

nearwater4me

Nice writeup!
Slightly off topic, but
Other than the size/thickness difference, what's different between softtop strikers and the hardtop ones?
I heard you have to switch out the softtop strikers on the MY00-02 in order to install the hardtop.
What happens if i try to latch the hardtop onto a softtop striker?

Dan

HankookS2K

because look at the pictures, the thickness is exactly only difference and my guess is that if you try to latch a hardtop to the softtop striker that it will be loose or it wont be fully pressed against the windshield and cause a lot of rattling or windnoise because of how thin the soft top strikers are. Even if you dont have the hardtop, these strikers are by far superior to help disipate wind noise and some road noise

hatch - the BLUE loctite would be a great idea for the screws

trivium

I have a my02. I wonder if this would prove worthwhile to do?

alejo

assuming you have a HT I would wait til it gets lose - you'll know; i know folks who just changed the screws and added plastic strips on the strikers to tighten the tension on the catcher.

HankookS2K

well when you have damage done to strikers like mine, i would change em out lol. It was really bad

s2kjosh

My striker's are pretty damn beat up, just ordered some new ones.

trivium

I dont have a HT but please provide more info about this procedure.

Danny_Spain

I change my hardtop strikers long time ago, and have a big diference.
Here the TSB with P/N https://www.s2ki.com/stor/library/TSB/A01-037.pdf