Well now that I have decided to replace my interior door panel, I think its time to address my last major concern about my door. Been searching around the forum but have not found the same problem that I am having. Hope someone has had some experience with this.

I am having a problem with my drivers side door closing or latching. When I get in my car and shut the door their is no probelm. However, if I reopen my door from the inside and shut it again, the door refuses to close all the way and latch. Instead it just bounces off. The only way that I can stop it from doing this is to get out of the car and pull on the handle which seems to reset it. I can still use my door, but this is just very annoying and I would like to get to the heart of the problem. Thanks again everyone and I look forward to your responses.

SCfan

 

Seems obvious that you need to grease the hinge points inside the door. at the inner handle... all the way to the lock. just lube it up, it is sticking.

 

onelasttry,

Where are the hinge points located? How would I go about doing this? What product works best. Thanks again and hopefully thats all it needs. Could it be anything else?

SCfan

 

Lithium grease i believe is the best choice, and just lube everything that moves.

 

The grease works wonders but it is not water-proof....so be carefull...

CEO

 

Lemme be sure I understand your problem:

The door opens fine and closes fine from the outside. And it opens fine but won't close properly from the inside. Right?

That tells me the door latch and the hinge are probably OK. I suspect a problem with the inside door release handle.

The inside handle activates the latch by means of a cable. It's a lightweight cable, like a bicycle brake cable. The outer shield of the cable fits into a clip on the door trim panel, and it breaks easily (I found that out when I broke mine) - and if the clip is cracked or loose, it will allow the outer cover of the cable to move, which will prevent the inner core of the cable from fully releasing the latch, which might keep the door from closing properly.

I secured my cable to the cracked clip with a small wire tie, pulled really tight. I have to cut the tie and replace it whenever I take the trim panel off, which is not very often, so it's no big deal.

(btw, check the wear of your driver's door hinge by opening the door to its first detent, then grab the bottom edge of the door and pull straight up - you should feel very little slack - I did this to every SC I looked at before I bought mine, and most of the early cars have quite a bit of wear - mine didn't, and that's one thing that made me decide it was the right car)

 

I am having the same problem as scfan. SCFAN did you get this problem resolved?

 

take off your door panel, thats step one

i think you're on the right track with the inner door handle.

it activates the latch via steel cable, that attaches similar to cable brakes on a bicycle. Its probably sticking open not allowing the latch to close.

the latch on the outside of the door works on a different mechanism, and when you pull it, its somehow freeing the 'snagged' cable.

 

Aliga,

The advice I got from this thread helped me to fix this problem on my own. Its not hard and only takes about 30 mins. Ajayr is right on the money.

James

 

Thanks guys, Ill try it and report back!