Every time I hit a small, or large, bump in the road both of my doors shudder pretty hard. What kind of adjustments can be made to make them stop shaking violently when I hit bumps? It is driving me crazy--It feels like the car is ready to start falling to pieces.
Thanks for any help,
Jason
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09:29 PM
PFF
System Bot
voodoochikin04 Member
Posts: 69 From: Eastern, Nebraska Registered: Jun 2011
got to the parts store.. in the "help" sections are some door strikers..
you can replace the stock striker with a ford door striker bolt that is slightly larger in diameter. You can find these in an auto parts store in the HELP / Motormite section, part # 38421. You might need to remove the plastic from the ford striker.
In the mean time, if its driving you nuts use a few wraps of electrical tape on the door striker, I did this real quik just to see if it works, & yep doors are good.
In the mean time, if its driving you nuts use a few wraps of electrical tape on the door striker, I did this real quik just to see if it works, & yep doors are good.
Good idea, but I stopped by a couple of auto parts places and bought these on the way home from work. Of course each place only had one.....
Hinge pins. The first thing to do is check them, & if you have play replace them. if they're tight, then adjust the door. Using the Ford strikers are a good upgrade if you have the door adjusted & it still rattles a little. Door adjustment: 1) Get help. Trying to do this by yourself is a real pain. 2) Try not to use a jack. If you do need to use one, make sure you're jacking on the metal & using a 2x4 to distribute the weight. With a helper, you'll use the jack at the FRONT of the door - but you really don't need one. 3) Check the alignment at the FRONT of the door. If it's low, then you need to loosen BOTH hinges ON THE COWL (as a first step) & move it up. Have someone hold the back of the door, loosen the hinges, & pull the front of the door up & tighten the hinges. You can do this with the door fully open. 4) Once the FRONT of the door lines up, remove the striker on the body. Slowly close the door checking to see if it's hitting anywhere (this is also where help comes in handy). If it's still low in the back, you can adjust that by moving the top hinge forward, or the bottom hinge back. Which you choose depends on the GAP at the front (if it's too wide, adjust the top hinge, & visa-versa). At this point you only loosen one hinge at a time. Moving them is easier with the door as far CLOSED as you can - move by lifting on the back of the door.. 5) Once the door lines up properly, re-install the striker so that the door closes properly & the striker does not move the door up or down when it closes. If this does not allow enough adjustment, then you need to move the hinges on the DOOR. To do this you need to remove the outer skin... 6) ALSO, If it needs to go in or out at the top or bottom, loosen the hinges on the DOOR to make it line up with the 1/4 panel. Ditto on the skin removal. This whole thing is hit-&-miss. You usually have to loosen & move the hinge(s) two or three times on each step to get it just right. ALWAYS check as you close the door that it's not hitting anywhere. It's possible on the Fiero that the door itself is properly aligned, but the body lines are not right. If you suspect this (after trying the above), the skin can be adjusted by loosening the mirror & the torx bolts at the front & rear of the skin. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver"
got to the parts store.. in the "help" sections are some door strikers..
you can replace the stock striker with a ford door striker bolt that is slightly larger in diameter. You can find these in an auto parts store in the HELP / Motormite section, part # 38421. You might need to remove the plastic from the ford striker.
I can vouch for this method. Works great. I had the same issue and found a thread about this a while back. It takes almost all the shudder or rattle out of your doors. It's great.
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05:15 AM
PFF
System Bot
Australian Member
Posts: 4701 From: Sydney Australia Registered: Sep 2004
I had same problem I also bought pins however i found that by bending the striker back into place the door stopped wobbling. My door didn't rock when open so didn't need pins.
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06:17 AM
npdimonte Member
Posts: 293 From: Bolingbrook, IL, USA Registered: Apr 2007
While the striker pin "upgrade" appears to work, the original pin is not the cause of the problem.
The problem I discovered while rebuilding my doors was in the door latch mechanism. There is a rubber stopper that the striker pin presses against when the door is closed and over time the striker pin head makes a permanent impression in the rubber stopper, were this rubber stopper can no longer push the striker pin against the latch. When this happens your door starts to shudder when you drive. Heck, you should be able to push on the door and see it move.
Since I was rebuilding my doors I had the time to fix this problem. I took the latch out to degrease it to improve the power door locks, but I looked in to the shudder problem while the latch was out. I put the latch on the striker pin and noticed the play it had. The striker pin was in great shape, so I figured it had to be the latch. That's when I noticed this rubber stopper. Tried to find replacement rubber, but could not find some thing that was hard enough. So, the way I fix this problem was to insert some aluminum stock, about 2.41mm (about 3/32in) thick behind the rubber stopper. I remember that once the aluminum spacer was in place I was not able to put the latch on the striker pin (latch still not in door) and have the latch lock as easily as before, maybe not at all IIRC. But once I installed the latch in the door, the weight of the door easily closed the door like it was new. It does not shudder one bit now.
Obvious, this is much more work than just replacing a pin, so I thought this would serve more of a FYI than any thing else.
------------------ Nick D. '88 Fiero GT 5-spd '03 Jetta GLS TDI 5-spd
Hinge pins. The first thing to do is check them, & if you have play replace them. if they're tight, then adjust the door. Using the Ford strikers are a good upgrade if you have the door adjusted & it still rattles a little. Door adjustment: 1) Get help. Trying to do this by yourself is a real pain. 2) Try not to use a jack. If you do need to use one, make sure you're jacking on the metal & using a 2x4 to distribute the weight. With a helper, you'll use the jack at the FRONT of the door - but you really don't need one. 3) Check the alignment at the FRONT of the door. If it's low, then you need to loosen BOTH hinges ON THE COWL (as a first step) & move it up. Have someone hold the back of the door, loosen the hinges, & pull the front of the door up & tighten the hinges. You can do this with the door fully open. 4) Once the FRONT of the door lines up, remove the striker on the body. Slowly close the door checking to see if it's hitting anywhere (this is also where help comes in handy). If it's still low in the back, you can adjust that by moving the top hinge forward, or the bottom hinge back. Which you choose depends on the GAP at the front (if it's too wide, adjust the top hinge, & visa-versa). At this point you only loosen one hinge at a time. Moving them is easier with the door as far CLOSED as you can - move by lifting on the back of the door.. 5) Once the door lines up properly, re-install the striker so that the door closes properly & the striker does not move the door up or down when it closes. If this does not allow enough adjustment, then you need to move the hinges on the DOOR. To do this you need to remove the outer skin... 6) ALSO, If it needs to go in or out at the top or bottom, loosen the hinges on the DOOR to make it line up with the 1/4 panel. Ditto on the skin removal. This whole thing is hit-&-miss. You usually have to loosen & move the hinge(s) two or three times on each step to get it just right. ALWAYS check as you close the door that it's not hitting anywhere. It's possible on the Fiero that the door itself is properly aligned, but the body lines are not right. If you suspect this (after trying the above), the skin can be adjusted by loosening the mirror & the torx bolts at the front & rear of the skin. ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver"
Thanks for that in-depth explanay, TD. This is something to do when it's time to put the car up for the season or if I do my dew wipes this summer (DIY Stu, where are you!!!). Right now, it's my DD.
quote
Originally posted by jwrape:
I can vouch for this method. Works great. I had the same issue and found a thread about this a while back. It takes almost all the shudder or rattle out of your doors. It's great.
I changed both mine out in 5 minutes and it's everything everybody said. Night and day difference. Only time I get a rattle now is my windows moving slightly because of worn dew wipes. 85% improvement after the striker upgrade, though.
quote
Originally posted by Australian:
I had same problem I also bought pins however i found that by bending the striker back into place the door stopped wobbling. My door didn't rock when open so didn't need pins.
I remember reading that now @ bending strikers back in place. Didn't notice any curvature of them but I held on to them and will take a look tonight just for kicks and giggles. Thought metal actually wearing down from constantly be rubbed when closing the door that did it....
quote
Originally posted by npdimonte:
While the striker pin "upgrade" appears to work, the original pin is not the cause of the problem.
The problem I discovered while rebuilding my doors was in the door latch mechanism. There is a rubber stopper that the striker pin presses against when the door is closed and over time the striker pin head makes a permanent impression in the rubber stopper, were this rubber stopper can no longer push the striker pin against the latch. When this happens your door starts to shudder when you drive. Heck, you should be able to push on the door and see it move.
Since I was rebuilding my doors I had the time to fix this problem. I took the latch out to degrease it to improve the power door locks, but I looked in to the shudder problem while the latch was out. I put the latch on the striker pin and noticed the play it had. The striker pin was in great shape, so I figured it had to be the latch. That's when I noticed this rubber stopper. Tried to find replacement rubber, but could not find some thing that was hard enough. So, the way I fix this problem was to insert some aluminum stock, about 2.41mm (about 3/32in) thick behind the rubber stopper. I remember that once the aluminum spacer was in place I was not able to put the latch on the striker pin (latch still not in door) and have the latch lock as easily as before, maybe not at all IIRC. But once I installed the latch in the door, the weight of the door easily closed the door like it was new. It does not shudder one bit now.
Obvious, this is much more work than just replacing a pin, so I thought this would serve more of a FYI than any thing else.
Thanks for that breakdown. This is something else I'll check when I replace my dew wipes along w/ the hinge pins suggested by TheDriver
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01:06 PM
2.5 Member
Posts: 43225 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
