Again, more newbie tightening questions.
My drivers side door has a rattle. Based on some snooping it appears the door latch is not tight. This is the part that swivels and holds the door to the post on the body side. Any idea how to tighten this? Do I take the interior door panel off (is it as obvious as it looks?) and tighten something? Very annoying - especially with Troy's cool windows on the car - and would love to square it away.
Thanks!
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Your description confuses me.... Is the door rattling within the body opening or is the rattle some part located within the door.... If the door is loose on the body, check hinge bolts and latch bar adjustment.... If the noise is inside the door, yes you will have to remove the door panel ( easily done ) and find the loose or broken part.... The worst part of removing the door panel is removing the handle retaining pin..... Push the trim ring back, visually locate the pin hole... Then drive out the pin.... There may be a tapered pin employed, if so try one direction first and change if no progress is made....
If further help is required, I have pics of the internals and their relationships....
And if you can't find it after reading Leon's post, take the "Shotgun" approach - Yes, it's a loose latch, but it can be remediated by replacing the piss-poor door weather stripping with something either the same but newer, or something else more robust. I've been using "Frost King" weather strip found in Home Depot for storm doors. There are a bunch of different widths and thicknesses, so figure out what'll fit the opening space, add 1/8"-1/4" to that and find something in that thickness and install it. Chances are, THAT will cure your rattle for at least one season, and the stuff is cheap enough and easy enough to install that a couple of seasons is enough.
I've also looked at several types of "D" style door weather strip materials from a bunch of vendors (Sof-seal, JC Whitney, etc) and they look promising, too.
Leon, this is the door rattling in the body opening - in particular just back and forth in the direction of door swing. When sitting in the car idling all I have to do is put my elbow against the door and the rattle stops.
Checked the hinges and they are tight and the door swings into the right position. The play is in the latch bar and that is what is allowing the whole door to rattle in position.
I'm very familiar with the interior door handle removal - mine does it on my own and I've been doing the reverse, trying to get it to stay on with a pin that is the right diameter.
My weather striping is pretty beat so that may be an easy solution, but I can see my passenger door latch bar is solid so I'd like to solve the real problem and not the symptom if I can. If I can't, looks like new, thicker weather stripping will be the solution.
DMAC,
Some simple rubber weather strip will push out on the door when it's latched and keep it from rattling. Just get the stuff that looks like a soft rubber tube, not the foam based product.
-=theron
It does sound like dead weather stripping.... I use a "D" shaped type available from McMaster Carr..... There are several different sizes... I believe I use the !/2" tall stuff....
Buy 15 / 20 ft. and you have enough on hand for the next time...(and the one after that!)
If that doesn't solve it, let Kirk take a look at it when you take it in for the new passenger side mirror.
DMAC--I had the same pita noise in my VS ---sounds like your problem exactly. I too suspected the latch and weatherstripping but that wasn't the source of the noise in my car. Took me 2 years before I got the problem solved.
My noise was caused by the metal rod inside the door that connects the door handle to the latch. It's a piece maybe 18" long, about 3x as thick as a coat hanger and it was ratteling against the fiberglass inside of the door---drove me crazy!!! I removed the interior door panel (do it as Leon recommends) and simply bent that metal strip away from the door towards the middle of the space and voila---fixed perfectly and permanently .
Later when I installed Dynamat throughout the car I applied it to the insides of the doors too and what a great "thunk" sound it makes when I close the door.
Now it sounds like" fine German engineering" to me.
I hope this helps you and that you find your rattle.
As a temp fix wrap the door jamb post catch with 4 or 5 turns of electrical tape and close the door ....again a temp on the road fix
Thanks for all the tips. I've been too busy at work/home to try anything. I did note the weatherstripping on the passenger is almost equally worn and I have no rattling issue on that side. I'm going to be at VS tomorrow for a bit of work (passenger side mirror, full tonneau install) and I'll ask Kirk to take a look.
Thanks!
