Misaligned Door....***Now Partially Solved!***

[Bosco]

I can't seem to see what is making my door shut improperly. I'm tired of hearing the wind whistle through it.

It's pretty hard to see the hinges. I assume the front fender would have to come off to access the hinges, right?.
Are those fenders easily removed?.

Is there a common reason for this?


Here are a couple photosof the latches for whatever use they'll be.

[THAWA]

I'd like to know aswell

[ciper]

You sure the air is coming from that, not the triangle in the corner?

[THAWA]

maybe it's roadnoise he's hearing. I hear both and ithey're both hella annoying

[vrg3]

Does the latch fully latch when you shut the door?

The factory service manual says you can remove the door without removing the fender by driving out the pin in the hinge and then undoing the M8 bolts holding the upper and lower hinges to the door. You can then reach the other bolts holding the hinges to the car.

[evolutionmovement]

You should be able to acces the door hinges without removing the fender. The fender, however is not difficult to remove. It can be kind of a pain to get back on aligned correctly, though, but I'm a perfectionist.

I'd suggest there's something stuck in the latch, like the double latch is only locking on the initial setting and something's preventing it from latching completely. That or something blocking the door itself. These doors are pretty light and the hinges robust so unless there's been an accident I wouldn't look at them first. Plus adjusting doors is a real PITA.

Steve

[Bosco]

Well, The air / noise is definitely coming from the gap in the door.
The door shuts and latches completely (2 clicks) it just doesn't go in all the way. I can put my hand on the door and shove it and it pushes in and out about 5mm or so.
It's definitely not right. I had to add a bit of rubber in the "toe" of the boot that covers the interior light switch in the door frame to keep the lights and dash light from staying on.
I checked out the latch, and it is not stuck. I compared it back and forth to my passenger door and see no difference.
The door isn't misaligned in any other way than not going in far enough when it is shut. All the horizontal lines and trim on the car line up perfectly.
None of the hinges or other door hardware look like they have been tampered with.

[THAWA]

my door is the exact same way and I did the same tape thing. I haven't tried sticking a finger in there though. Mines like that from a hit n run though.

[vrg3]

This may be chassis flex. I'll see if I can dig up some distance specs so you can measure and see.

But in any case I do believe the hinges' positions are somewhat adjustable.

[evolutionmovement]

Was there anything to trigger this problem? It sounds like the door is solid on the hinges (no free play). Even it did move it should close OK if you played with it... Is the interior panel popped out anywhere? Like the bottom and one of the plastic retainers moved so it won't go back in the hole, but is instead forcing the panel to bulge out a little? The striker is also adjustable, but I strongly recommend eliminating every other possibility before messing with the hinges.

Steve

[magicmike]

Try moving the pin that rests on the door jam part back a little so when it closes it will be tighter.

-Mike

[QuickDrive]

I have the same issue..

During highway driving it's fine, but if I roll the window down, and back up again, the wind whistling begins and I have to open the door and slam it again to get the noise to stop...

[Bosco]

Yeah, The door is solid on the hinges with no free play.
How are thhe strikers adjustable? (you guys mean the part in the top picture?)
I took that part off, and inspected it. It doesn't seem adjustable to me. I even tried flipping it upside down to no avail. It still shut the same way.

There was nothing that really triggered this problem that I know of. I never noticed the door not shutting right when I first bought the car a couple months ago. Eventually we noticed the interior light would stay on occasionally, and you'd have to slam the door to make sure it went out. Then it seemed to get worse over the course of about a week and slamming the door wasn't enough to keep the light off. I had to add the rubber piece inside the boot like I mentioned.
From what I can tell the plastic and rubber trim pieces are all in good shape and don't seem to be bulged out. everything feels tight and snug... the trim and the hardware.

I appreciate y'all putting a little thought into this.

[evolutionmovement]

Does the door rattle over bumps?

My tailgate occasionally rattles even when apparently fully latched. I suspect the latch is weak as there is no other cause. I'll try a JY piece this spring, but I wonder if there could be the same issue with your door.

Steve

[Bosco]

It doesn't really rattle much unless I were to hit a really bad piece of road. I usually just notice the air noise, and when I wash the car, sometimes a little bit of water gets through to the inside. Worst of all, it looks like crap, and also might invite a thief to my car just because it looks like the door isn't shut right.

What is a JY piece?

[BAC5.2]

I have a similar problem. My passenger side fender is misaligned.

Any tips on realignment?

[THAWA]

jy = junkyard

[Bosco]

OH... Junk Yard.... I knew that... ... heh.
Damn! You guys (and gals) abbreviate EVERYTHING around here!

It's pretty tough for a non-gearhead like me to keep up sometimes.

[Bosco]

Well I figured out where my problem is rooted with this door issue, so I figured I'd update this thread with at least a partial solution.

The root of the problem is in the part in the doorframe, not in the door. (the top part in this photo)

The 2 screws seen there thread in to metal sleves which are embedded in some sort of plastic block in the doorframe (behind the B pillar plastic trim). It seems the bottom half of that plastic block is not attached as it should be which allowed the latch to slip out a bit towards the outside of the car. I took the plastic trim off, but couldn't really see a good way to get in there behind the metal and see what's going on. It looks nearly impossible. Then again, I DID still have the driver's seat in which was obviously in the way.
Anyone know anything about getting in to that area of the car?

The temporary solution was to just loosen both screws and pull like mad on the bracket towards the inside of the car, and retighten the screws really tight in that position. it has held up for about a full week so far, but I'm sure it'll slip back out sometime.

AAAnyway.... I'm satisfied to have some sort of answer... Door shuts correctly for the moment.

[jmaziarz]

I had exactly this same problem and found the solution.

In reference to (the top part of this photo), the screws that hold the U shaped bracket in place have a little play in them and come loose sometimes. Taking a large phillips screwdriver and tightening them with all my might fixed the problem. The door closes perfectly and the problem has not resurfaced in over a year.

[ultrasonic]

On my car the U shaped latch (top photo) has a piece of black plastic on the outboard part. Yours may have broken off.

[Lorryb]

The problem (in my 91 at least) is in the u shaped striker on the body. The driver door on mine was the first to go, first the light stayed on then the wind noise started. Then the passenger side door started misbehavin, again first the light, later wind noise. I tried a few things, then I took a close look at the U shaped strikers. There seemed to be a remnant of a plastic sleeve on the leg of the U that the latch catches on. Hmmm, then I looked at the relatively unused rear U strikers....sure enough the plastic sleeve/bushing over the leg of the U was intact. Needless to say I had the rear U strikers mounted on the front doors in no time flat. Eureka! no more wind noise! No more lights staying on! When I put the front U's on the back doors, I pulled them outboard as hard as I could then tightened that phillips screw. There was just enough play in the mounts to keep the rear doors shut tight enough to keep the lights off and the wind noise away. This may have worked on the fronts without swapping but I thought that with the constant use of the front doors it would just be a matter of time before the problem resurfaced so I did the swap. Kind of a weak design, having that plastic bushing IMHO

[Bosco]

So far so good.. two months later, still shuts correctly... No re-tightening yet. It seems to shut fine without the plastic bushing thing.

[professor]

I use an impact driver to loosen and tighten door strikers. They are so tight from the factory (or the last hack) that they often strip out. Also you can't get them tight enough to stay put, so use the impact driver to tighten the crap out of them. The strikers are always adjustable, but the egg-shaped holes are on the car body, not the striker, so until you loosen them they don't look adjustable.

If there is a mis-fit vertically, check the hinges for wear. Usually the striker can be adjusted up as well as in and out. If there is a twist, or vertical misalignment with good hinges, grab the outboard edge of the door and twist it with great force, or lift it to bend it into position. The final fitments in body shops often involve brute force (judiciously applied) to get a good fit, by bending metal slightly.