This can be easily seen by looking at the soft-top when it is folded down fully or by looking in the hood lining when the hood is partially down (See pictures below.)
You will notice when the hood is fully down that you may end up with the corners sticking out (Ears). These should be pulled in by the straps, to leave a tidy line along the back of the car.
Here you can clearly see the ears of the hood, you can tuck these in, but it would be nice for them to be pulled into the correct place automatically. (Some manual tucking may still be required if the straps are connected correctly, but less than if they are not.)
Here you can see the faulty strap; some times this strap may be in side the hood lining.
The strap should be connected at both ends to allow the hood to be pulled into place.
The strap does need to pass correctly through the metal support.
Here you can see the strap passing around the metal support. The best way to connect the straps is to have the soft-top half open and pull the strap between the metal support and the rubber that meets up with the window.
Once the straps are connected correctly, the corners of the hood should be pulled into place. Some manual tucking may still be required, but a lot less than before.
This should also help train the hoods shape over time.
Hopefully this will be of some use to some of you and will help with what seems to be quite a common problem.
This documentation in no way replaces the Toyota MR2 Repair Manuals. The purpose of this content is only to provide supplementary information to fellow MR2 enthusiasts. Midship Runabout and its contributing authors will not be held responsible for any injury or damages that may occur as the result of practicing any of the methods or procedures described within this website. Article and photo submissions are property of the contributing author.
