Driver Door Loose...

[2002tbva]

Hello All,

Need some help figuring something out here please. My 02 TB driver door shakes and makes the occasional thump sound when hitting bumps. I'm not sure where I adjust to make the door close tighter. Looks to me..... both door and frame latch are non adjustable. Is this correct or am I missing something obvious?

I have loosened both but they seem to be in the same spot when I tighten them back up. I have used a marker around the frame mount and turned the whole unit around but didn't seem to help at all

What am I missing here?

Thanks so much !

Bill

 

[The_Roadie]

Hi! The door frame side striker backer plate loves to stick to the vehicle. You need to slightly loosen the screws and then pry on the latch with a big screwdriver to break it free. Then you can adjust it inwards if it's loose. The manual suggests removing the latch and closing the door without it, to check the tightness and alignment. A 2002 may have aging weatherstripping that's the root cause of the looseness. There was an article either here or on trailvoy about sliding in some thin tubing inside a hole in the weatherstripping to give it more stiffness and reduce wind noise. That may help you as well if replacing the weatherstripping has too much sticker shock.

 

[2002tbva]

Hi Roadie,

Just wanted to provide an update since you were nice enough to help. What I did was loosened up the bolts on the latch (attached to truck) then grabbed a chisel and small sledgehammer and hit it a few times till I saw it moved in. I traced the outside of the bracket beforehand so I knew what difference I made which was about a 1/16 of an inch. Tightened up the bolts and then tested. It worked pretty well since I notice less free play when I push in the door when closed. I will have to test ride it and see what happens but if it needs more i'll just hit it a couple more times.

Thanks for your help !!