My driver side door felt like it was 'swimming' vertically on the striker bolt and making all kinds of the most annoying rattles over small bumps and road chages. I could press down on the arm rest and it would stop a bit. I also had a problenm a few months ago where the driver door wouldnt open unless I pressed down on the door while pulling the handle.

Sound familiar?

Well, I was stumped because I found nearly zero play in the door when it was open and I was pulling it up and down. I new that with bad upper and lower bushings/pins you should expect some obvious play. This car as about 200K miles worth of door opening and closing.

I finally took it to a body shop today and the owner said the door needed adjustment only. No pins/bushings/striker bolts needed. I seriously doubted him, but he said $30 and 30 minutes was all he needed.

I came back and sure enough, this door closes like it was brand new and ZERO rattles while driving over whatever nasty road I am on. I am a happy man.

For what its worth....................

 

So what adjustment did the fellow make?

JamesC

 

they just loosened the hinge to door bolts as far as i know. I know there is a tool that you can use to get it aligned right. But I didnt see

 

There is very little if any adjustment it the hinge bolts… they are not slotted and the other side is welded to the door frame.

What most body shops do is to grab a piece of 2x4, use the leverage of the length of the door and position the 2x4 in the door jamb so when you push it shut it bends the assembly in the direction that it needs to go. It works very well but most don’t want you to see them do it (probably why you came back in a half hour…)

I did this with a friend’s formula which the doors were “sagging” so bad that the front edge of the door was hitting the inside of the back edge of the fender, the body lines were all messed up… and was able to get most of it sitting and working perfectly in about 10 minutes (5 minutes of “I’ll fix it if you want me too but either you go inside and don’t watch me or no bitching once I start…” and him with “are you sure about this?” and then maybe 2 minutes of adjusting the door hinges and then about 3 mintutes of getting the door striker in the right place).

Be aware there is quite a significant difference between a sagging door and worn out hinges, and you’re just asking for trouble doing this on a door with worn out hinges. Also, if you look at some of the convertible and t-top cars you’ll find that they have steel on one side and hard plastic on the other side, wedge shaped plates that hit together and force the door into the right position to prevent this to some extent, but most I noticed are not shimmed into the correct position to actually do anything and most hard top and many t-top cars just don’t have them.

 

i did it the easy wasy i bought a hinge repair kit from tds they have the alignment tool as well

 

Thanks for bring this up, I was just wondering about this. My Iroc which has t-tops, the drivers door is hitting something when I go over a bump(door striker?). The striker bolt on the door jam has the top of it worn a little, like the door is hitting on it when I shut it? The door doesn't seem to be sagging. I can't really move it anymore then the passenger door when open. (up and down that is) What do I need to do to fix the loud hitting noise? Thanks, Nick.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...servation.html

JamesC

 

Unfortunatly I dont know what they did, but it worked, and without any extra parts.

My door rattled SO bad everywhere and made me not like driving much.

Its gone now, completely.

When I would shut the door before, it wouldn't even close all the way and shut with a non-reassuring thud. Now it shuts crisply and easily. I have never had any play in the hinges. So thats why I didnt buy the new hinge bolts/pins