How to fix?: Leaking door windows

windows on

I should fix

the softtop

the door

looking at the

expensive and

being a tad

get more info?

The first thing to check is that the rain drains are clear. Open the door and look at the top of the openeing on the body side. There's a channel there that's supposed to drain down to the bottom of the door opening. You should stick a strong but flexible wire down there to make sure that the drains are clear. That is usually the main culprit in this situation.

Also check the fit of the rubber gasket at the top of the window - it can be moved forward or backward to direct the water from the roof down the rain drains. Hmmm, I thought there was something in the garage section of miata.net on this but I can't find it at the moment.

Good luck.

Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata

The window gasket sets in a U shaped metal "track". This can be moved in or out. (After you partially remove the rubber window gasket from the track. The whole top can also be moved slightly as well. There is also usually a stop plate inside the door that causes the window to move inwards slightly at the last part of the up travel. This may also need adjustment. If the bottom of a window guide in the door is worn or loose, the top of the window may be out just enough to leak.

There was a problem with the weatherstripping along the edge of the top on some early 1999 Miatas. Could be that you just have bad weatherstripping. It's also not that uncommon for either the door glass or the weatherstripping to become mis-aligned. I've found that a gentle tugging outward of the weatherstripping will solve a lot of leaks. The weatherstripping also tends to sag and slip down the channel towards the back some and you have to push it forward.

You might also check the tightness of your top latches, they are easy to adjust.

Good luck,

- Alan Dahl

Thanks to everyone that responded. For what it's worth I have tried opening and closing the windows as well as opening and closing the doors (and all combos of both) to reseat the window against the weather stripping. However I had no success.

So I opened the window and played around with the weather-stripping. Basically I checked that there was nothing obvious blocking the drainage channel. I also squeezed the stripping to see if any water would leak out through cracks and whatnot. It all looked fine so I closed the window. Since then it has not leaked. I guess I am a better mechanic than I thought. ;)