I haven't had a chance to look at this at all yet, but I figured I'd get what advice I could before I dug into it.

97 960 Wagon-216K

My teen was unable to get her door to stay closed. The latch apparently won't grab and stay shut. A maintenance guy at her job said the mechanism is "worn out" and used duct tape to keep the door closed. "Use the passenger door" was his solution.

I doubt the mechanism is worn out, probably stuck. Has anybody dealt with this stuff before in Volvo's? The rest of the doors still close with authority, that Euro-door thud that sounds confident and strong, as opposed to my Ford which sounds tinny and hollow.

The local salvage yard finally got a 960 in stock. I'm hoping they are rare in the junkyard because they are such reliable cars. I want to get through these nit picky problems so I can begin doing routine maintenance.

Thanks as always for your good, helpful advice.

As always, thanks for your great advice.

 

Mine won't close every once and a while. try working the latch manually with the door open. Then releasing it. I've had to door it on a couple of thes doors. Sometimes it gets kinda halfway latched with the door open and then the door won't close.

If the guy taped the door shut and told her to just use the pass door, he doesn't sound real sharp.

good luck

 

Had at the hinge this morning.

The problem miraculously fixed itself.

When I removed the six layers of duct tape [sidebar: You wouldn't believe how the guy taped the door shut: He rolled the front and back windows down about two inches and wrapped about six layers around the door post. Fortunately it didn't rain or the car would've been inundated with water] the latch had already closed and the door was shut. I opened it the normal way, shut it again and it stayed shut.

The latch was indeed sticking a bit. I got some 3 in 1 oil, lubricated it and it works every time now. I also lubricated the other latches to avoid issues.

Thanks for your advice.

az

 

I guess this is a little bit late, but yeah, lube the mechanism up. I haven't had any experience with a volvo and this, but I had this same problem with a Jaguar and a Lexus, I found lubricant fixed those problems permanently.

 

im sure if you had the resource books that a certified mechanic had you would see that lowering the next closest window and duct taping around a substantially supported pillar is the proper way to safely secure a door until someone else has the time to look at it .....that'll be 125 dollars please...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that is perfect !!!! i have heard a lot of silly things but wow

if it makes you feel any better the "mechanic" that worked on my car before i bought it [with a bad fuel pump] went to napa bought a 30 dollar inline fuel pump and proceeded to cut the pump cage apart and zip tie [another certified mechanics tool apparently] the incorrect fuel pump around the sending unit and submerse a non submersible pump into a full [thank god] tank of fuel.....why did 5 fuses blow and them the pump fried ???? lmao.............600 bucks for the car....100 bucks at a good salvage yard for a fuel pump set up and 2 hours later i registered the car !!! cha ching !!!!!