Something to be aware of- poss sunroof leak
 

I never paid it any attention, but discovered a possible place for the sunroof to leak as these cars age. Was removing my sunroof's hinge points in preparation of paint, and noticed that the gasket thats behind the roof hinge had deteriorated to basically nothing on one side and there were signs it had been leaking. Probably not enough to get to ever leak out to drip so you would see it, but it explains why my factory headliner was toast. When i put them back in I will more than likely use RTV silicone to "make" a gasket, as the factory gasket is not even shown in the parts manual that I saw. I am thinking it is "part" of the hood hinge and the only way to replace it would be to buy a new hinge from mazda.

Post some pics Barron, who knows, there might be one in the parts shed.

This is one where a pic wont show much...what happens is the gasket just deteriorates to nothing, so all the picture will show is a removed hood hinge. If you look at the body side of the hinge location you will see 2 screws running into the front of the roof. This holds the hinge in place, and the gasket seals the 2 screws plus the hinge to the roof. The 2 screws going down hold the flip up visor in place, and I would assume they would need to be sealed as well.....

if you mean the thing the sunroof "tongue" goes into on the front of the sunroof opening, you're right. easy to forget too!

i've never seen a new one (i worked in a mazda parts dept from 97-2007, and own a substantial collection of GSL-SE stuff), but i think the gasket is a piece of foam, although silicon should be fine

Foam would fit with what I am seeing.....after 25+ years its powdered nothing to the point that you wouldnt even realize it was a gasket and easily forget to seal the thing, if you werent wondering what sealed that entry point.. Bad thing is, where it leaks you probably wouldnt notice until it was too late....water seemed to sit on top of the headliner, which explains why the front of my headliner was toast, worse on the passenger side, which is where I saw evidence that mine on that side was leaking.