Why don't the NB roof latches lock closed? - SOLVED!!!

poison · Post by **poison** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:55 pm

For all you NB owner who have wondered why your roof latches won't actually LOCK closed - even after hours of adjusting? Well don’t worry it's not just yours, it’s nearly all of them.

It’s been really bugging me so I bought a set of NA roof latches from Don at Autoway in Hamilton (still the best place for MX5 servicing by the way).

I compared them to the ones on my NB and they look identical (yes some of the early one’s are gloss and later in the NA range they went to a matt finish). So I started taking measurements. Almost everything is the same, except for the latch handle itself, it's just 1mm shorter on the NB. From a closer inspection I can see it's been made from a cast, so I guess Mazda found somewhere to get them cheaper somewhere around 1998.

So stop fiddling you NB owners, they are never going to work. Thanks Mazda. And sorry I guess I haven't solved it, I just know why

And you're going to have to buy some from an NA.

Genuine parts… not really. I assume most people may not realise (I didn’t) but many car parts are not made by directly by Mazda or Toyota etc, and are outsourced for licensed manufacture. For example there is a city called Toyota City (Aichi, Japan) where the whole economy and local industry is dedicated to supplying and or assembling components to supply to Toyota. I visited my friends company and they were guy grinding off the Toyota brand and part number off parts to repackage for other parts suppliers. So the old saying “use genuine parts” is not something to be too concerned about as you may well be no matter who you buy off, it’s just (a lot) cheaper

sprsta · Post by **sprsta** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:28 pm

just watch where it is made i would never buy something from taiwan for my own car and would be very cautious about anything out of china

cole

Psycho_Dad · Post by **Psycho_Dad** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:20 pm

im sure the americans used to say that about japanese cars too

[Posted via external email]

brownie · Post by **brownie** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:08 pm

I work at Mazline and i can tell you we have imported parts from taiwain for a number of years,Some of it is Sh*t from years gone by,But a fair amount is good quailty now,In fact most new cars have lights supplied thru taiwain anyway,It might not just say it on the part !!,In todays competitive climate Taiwain has some nice product and looking towards quailty where as China wants quanity and can be a bit sus.It seems the big car companys are soucing parts thru places like these as a cost cutting measure any way,ie,Genuine driving lights for 98/99 Familia's used to made in Japan by Cibe are now made in malaysia from as supplied from Mazda.
Parts for car are sourced from all over the world thru FoMoCo related cars.
Struts from Poland,airbag modules from Mexico,lights from england

Bumpers from Taiwain,HID units from France,
All assembled in Japan !!
At least the old Roadster was assembled in Japan with good jap supplied parts,And that why they are still good 20 years down the track

sprsta · Post by **sprsta** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:55 am

we got a tiwainese gard for a vy holden last week and holden said that they get them from there too. i was quite surprised and it even fitted like a holden
you dont often get bonnets that are 2 inches to long these days thankfully

skams · Post by **skams** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:25 pm

Thanks for that poison. I wondered what the cause was and compared my old na latching to try and find out why and thought that my nb units were just worn out????? on a car that had only just traveled 35000km???? and was going to try and get some new units sometime when I got around to it, but I'll just go to plan b now and have a look at introducing some crude form of adjustment. Sometimes it does pay to procrastinate occasionally.

poison · Post by **poison** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:26 am

It just needs a couple of extra mm at the clip end. Even a simple pop rivet
on the end would do it but no look the greatest. A dab of weld maybe and a
repaint. It's a casting so any attempt to panel beat it will probably cause
cracking.

[Posted via external email]

brentweaver · Post by **brentweaver** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:47 pm

Hi guys,
Check out the following link
http://www.miata.net/garage/top_latch/index.html for info on NB latches.
Cheers Brent

[Posted via external email]

poison · Post by **poison** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:57 pm

Good find but to be honest I am not convinced it will fix many of the NB
issues, I had a quick poke and a play with one of my old latches and I
think this method will cure small variances but on many of the NB's the gap
is just too big.

None the less if I remember I'll try this fix tomorrow and report back...

[Posted via external email]

skams · Post by **skams** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:42 pm

Had a SENIOR moment, Brent you reminded me, having had a look at you kink it
brought it all back to me and I do remember doing this fix and it did work -
well they seem to lock ok now and I do remember there being a gap reasonably
big enough to prevent any assemblence of locking.
Cheers Simon

[Posted via external email]

poison · Post by **poison** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:22 pm

OK- I just ripped down to the garage and tried Brent's fix and it does
indeed work, I am to say the least surprised, and VERY EASY.

http://www.miata.net/garage/top_latch/index.html

Some tips ;

A) It took me less than 5 mins to do one (my clips were off but that's also
just 5 mins).

B) Take care removing the circlip, it shoots off a long way and will be hard
to find. Remember which way the spring sits and it's easy to get back in at
the end.

C) TAKE IT SLOW with the file, in fact just make a couple of strokes each
time and test fit (it's easy to test fit without the spring). The tabs are
small soft tabs and will wear away fast, you only need to take 1/2mm each
time.

D) I repeat take it slow, keep the file flat so not to round off the little
edges. Make sure you use the smooth edge of the file against the clip or you
will wear away too much.

Good luck

PS: Reminder to all - please edit your replies when respondng via eamil
(delete the original email to keep our forum tidy) thanks.

[Posted via external email]

mazdad · Post by **mazdad** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:19 pm

[quote="poison"]OK- I just ripped down to the garage and tried Brent's fix and it does
indeed work, I am to say the least surprised, and VERY EASY.

http://www.miata.net/garage/top_latch/index.html

I'll second that - drivers side refused to latch shut no matter how carefully I adjusted it - followed Brent's instruction and voila!