crazydude

Ok, so I had LOUD windnoise, at aprox 60mph it became insane... if i snugged the roof down with the handle, it reduced the noise. So i searched the forum and determined I needed hardtop strikers. So I ordered them from hardtopguy.com and installed them today. I thought that I would go for a ride and see how silent it is... at 30mph it is MUCH MUCH louder then @ 100mph with the factory strikers.

So I started looking around the roof and noticed that there is light beeming in thru the roof and frame (moulding is not moulding in that area???). I am unsure if this gap was present when useing the factory strikers. My ears kinda of sense that that hardtop strikers made the center of the roof tighter... but not the sides.

Here is a pic of this gap, its kinda hard to capture it well with a camera, so I drew an arrow pointing at the gap. This gap is on both the passanger and drivers side.






I looked at the mouldings and noticed a small chunk of rubber on both sides ... here is the picture of it...



this rubber was found on both sides of the car as shown in this picture...



The rubber chunk amongst the hollow moulding nearest the windshield looks like this...



...and travels inside the hollow moulding and stops here...



(thats all my pictures for now....hope that all made sense)

SO, what is the problem here? why do I have this gap? It almost seems like those rubber pieaces are suppose to be inside the hollow portion of the moulding to make them more firm? are any parts missing? should I just order in a complete new moulding?


I have aprox 3 weeks till a 5000km road trip I have planned with my car... with this kind of noise, I will have to cancel.

Any ideas?

crazydude

one more side note...

the back hollow moulding (not closest to the windshield) is entirely hollow.

The front hollow moulding is hollow after the point where my finger is pointing.

crazydude

Here is a picture of the rubber chunk forced into the back hollow moulding .... it doesnt slide in very well, so its only in maybe 1cm. Does it belong in this hollow moulding???

ahrmike

Pics less focused please? IDK where the heck Im looking at.


I had the same prob at one point - I flipped the catchers due to the wearing, it caused the roof to flex (wouldnt center correctly) and so it made the int. noise louder.

Try put spacers behind the catcher to LOWER it down, use OEM strikers, see if that helps.

crazydude

what is a catcher???

what part do you need un focused??? i am holding the chunk of rubber in my hand in the picture.

CKit

He meant un-zoomed.

ahrmike

I think its not your mouldings fault. If it was not as bad before the install, its most likely the install's fault.

The part you changed, is it attached to the frame of the window or the soft top?

I'm calling the soft top part -> striker
and window part - >catcher.

ahrmike

Hm, sorry. I seem to have assumed the name of the part wrong, I guess you changed the part thats connected to the frame.

In that case, Im totally lost. Have you tried closing one side only, getting someone to pull on the handle, then closing the other? When I flipped the sides on mine, the top ended up getting pulled apart due to the wear marks, making it leak more air..My solution was to just put spacers behind the catchers to pull it lower.

crazydude

i repeat myself.... wtf is a catcher?

crazydude

is a catcher a rubber moulding???