Last Modified Jul 03

Ok so you have the MR2 T-bar and you're feeling good while the suns out and life is just great. Then it rains and you get wet. Fact. MR2's leak through the T-bars whether its a mk1 or mk2 and you would've thought by the mk2 those clever Japanese types at Toyota would have fixed it. After all when it rains over in Japan it really does chuck it down so how they managed to repeat the mistakes of the mk1 t-bar arrangement into the mk2 is anybodies guess.

OK update on this, Ryan has made himself know as the originator of the sealant and clingfilm fix and so duly gets the credit and thanks from me and others that he deserves!

Now there are a variety of ways to get round this problem. These solutions are listed below and have been gleaned from my travels round the information superhighway with stops at IMOC and MR2OC some I have tried others I haven't.

• Eccentric T-Top Rod Guide - two per side. Part number 63283-17040 with M4 x 10mm machine screws - two per side. Note that you must get metric machine screws.
• rubber seal rejuvenator for spraying round the seals and freshening them up for a better seal between the panels
• new rubber seals from Toyota - ouch
• silicon sealant in a green tube from Halfords and some cling film

Come again??? What was that last one??? Its so simple and yet brilliant in my experience.

What you do is identify where the drips are coming from, usually at the join with the windscreen and

• clean both seals in that area
• squeeze a liberal amount of the silicon sealant onto the seal on the t bar panel seals (not the car body like I did.....)
• tear off some cling film and cover the area now spread with the sealant
• put the T-bar back on and tighten up as normal
• repeat for other side as necessary
• wait 24 hrs and then remove t-bars and cling film then replace t-bars
• job done

I can honestly say the sealant and cling film worked a treat and I've never had any leaks again in the rain or when washing the car. Job done and costs only GB£10 tops in bits and 20 minutes of your time. Well worth it. Thanks Ryan for the original posting cause this fix has kept my leg and the seat nice and dry now for over a year. Bloody brilliant. If you put the sealant on the t-bars then its doesn't show when the tops are off, unlike me who put it on the actual car seals. Still black on black doesn't exactly stand out.

What happens is that the sealant that has been spread onto the seals is now compressed and squeezed by the locked T-bar into the areas with all the gaps and hence fills them. The cling film allows the sealant to dry AND allow you to remove the T-bars later without pulling the new seal off at the same time.