I think wind noise is always going to occur at higher speeds. This is because a seal like a fixed roof car will not be attainable with a removable hardtop. I know a few Mugen Hardtop owners who experience the same issue of wind noise. The only thing you can do is to remove one or two of the shims underneath the front latches. Doing so will help, but will not fully eliminate wind noise at high speeds.

 

^ what effect does removing the shims have? Make the roof lower or tighter? Will it make it sit higher? I was thinking about taking one out, but did not want the rattle to come back (finally got rid of it after about 20hrs worth of adjusting )

 

Removing the shims will bring the roof tighter to the seal. My top sits a little bit lower when looking at it from the outside. I suppose this is just an opportunity cost because I would rather have it quiet in the cabin. If you are rattle and leak free then I would just leave the top as it is. If you do have wind noise, then maybe consider removing a shim. I don't think it would cause the rattle to return, but it may cause some creaking because the top is in effect tigher than it was. Mine creaked before I removed the shims.

On the OEM hardtops, the hardware that attach the latches to the top have thread lock on them, so be very careful not to strip the phillips head screws when you are removing the latch.

 

I have already taking the latches off once. I was going to switch them with the MY04 latches that I had on the soft top, but they are not the same size (the 04 soft top latches are a little longer than the HT ones). I thought I read somewhere that they would work, but that did not seem right so I left the HT latches on. I bought HT catchers from Hard Top Guy and that mady the really bad rattling go away

The creaking does not bother me, but it seems that the driver side of the HT sits a little bit higher than the passenger side, I was thinking if I remove 1 shim it may even the HT out.

Thanks for the info

 

My hardtop is the same way even after I removed the shims. I think it was like that before, but I removed one on either side to try to get rid of the wind noise after trying nearly everything else. Maybe removing one could help to even it out, but mine sits higher on the driver side as well.

 

^ Well maybe I will just leave it alone then, at least I know I'm not the only one . I am going to wait til I remove the soft top and then play with it some more

 

Wel, I know that it is a pain the butt, but, the only real way to get rid of the squeaks and rattles is to adjust the side pins that protrude out of the bottom of the hardtop. It took me three tries but was well worth the effort. Just remove the plastic side panels on the interior of the H/T and you will find the three bolts that you need to mess with. I marked my bracket with a silver sharpie to tell me where they were sitting at before I started to make any adjustments. Just loosen the bolts enough to be able to manuver the bracket a touch one way or the other. It is pretty much trial and error but as I said, well worth it.

I was actually thinking about selling the top because it got to be so bad. Glad i didn't...................!!