new car feel $0, 30 mins of your time
#1
08-25-2009, 10:20 PM
new car feel $0, 30 mins of your time
Gents
Today I made all my doors fit, open and close like new.
Do your doors move up or down when they hit the striker?
Do they seal up nicely on the rubbers,
Do the doors line up with each other and the rest of the car.
If not its a real easy fix, on the pillars are the striker plates, there are punched marks in the door pillars and small arrows on the striker plates.
Check them out, if the doors dont open and shut nicely due to abuse from the kids, salt on the roads, lack of maintenance, read on.........
Start by lubricating the rollers and pins in the FWD part of the door that stops the door swinging out too far, I use a water resistant grease and my fingers to apply.
Apply some WD40 / CRC / INOX to the latch assembly at the back of the door and on the door hinge pins. Open and close the doors several times to move the oil/grease to where it needs to be.
Next -still not like new? check alignment of the striker to factory marks, if they are all over the place (like mine were) adjust back to factory and go from there.
start by loosening the torx head screws on the strikers (on the B and C Pillars -one door at a time) and moving the plates to the middle marks on the strikers with the punched marks in the bodywork -where the factory intended them to be!!
Make very small adjustments from here until the door lines up with the rest of the body, doesnt jump up or down when it hits the striker and opens and closes like it did when the car was new.
All pretty obvious here -door jumps up, move striker down, door closes too tighlty, move striker out until everything is perfect.
I found that my 2001 model rear doors had been neglected by the previous owner, stiff and the rollers on the door retaining bar rusty and noisy, thats my next job, remove from door, clean inspect, if shagged replace with new or better 2nd hand ones.
Its the little things that make the car like new that make all the difference to the ownership experience.
Karl
Today I made all my doors fit, open and close like new.
Do your doors move up or down when they hit the striker?
Do they seal up nicely on the rubbers,
Do the doors line up with each other and the rest of the car.
If not its a real easy fix, on the pillars are the striker plates, there are punched marks in the door pillars and small arrows on the striker plates.
Check them out, if the doors dont open and shut nicely due to abuse from the kids, salt on the roads, lack of maintenance, read on.........
Start by lubricating the rollers and pins in the FWD part of the door that stops the door swinging out too far, I use a water resistant grease and my fingers to apply.
Apply some WD40 / CRC / INOX to the latch assembly at the back of the door and on the door hinge pins. Open and close the doors several times to move the oil/grease to where it needs to be.
Next -still not like new? check alignment of the striker to factory marks, if they are all over the place (like mine were) adjust back to factory and go from there.
start by loosening the torx head screws on the strikers (on the B and C Pillars -one door at a time) and moving the plates to the middle marks on the strikers with the punched marks in the bodywork -where the factory intended them to be!!
Make very small adjustments from here until the door lines up with the rest of the body, doesnt jump up or down when it hits the striker and opens and closes like it did when the car was new.
All pretty obvious here -door jumps up, move striker down, door closes too tighlty, move striker out until everything is perfect.
I found that my 2001 model rear doors had been neglected by the previous owner, stiff and the rollers on the door retaining bar rusty and noisy, thats my next job, remove from door, clean inspect, if shagged replace with new or better 2nd hand ones.
Its the little things that make the car like new that make all the difference to the ownership experience.
Karl
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