tophermecier
Enthusiast
New to the forum! I just wanted to share my experience on dealing with the common door sag/hang issues these cars have. Maybe it can lead someone down a better path. All my research kept me thinking it was a sagging door.
Tip one: It's the door seal, not your door sagging.
This car has a terrible door and seal clearance. Little or no clearance between the door and the seal. With the door properly aligned panel wise, you may STILL have interference between the door seal and door panel, simply because of how close they are by design. Many people will just go adjust the door up to clear it, thinking its a sag issue, but ultimately make the door shell stick up at the quarter because the door wasn't actually the core issue. I'm a stickler for panel alignment, so this was not a solution.
My car had seen the previous owner adjust the door way up. It cleared the seal, but it looked terrible. Once I got the door down to correct alignment, BOOM.... no shut, hitting seal. I thought to myself, maybe the door just seems right because its jumping up on the seal or striker and its actually hanging.... so I removed the striker and shut the door. Door still hit seal, but it seemed very well aligned. At this point, I observed the overall seal and realized just how smashed it was around the striker area compared to other portions. It was clearly sticking out past the metal enforced lip the seal is attached to on the body of the door opening. Once I knew I had a new seal coming, I played around some more.... I simply cut out the smashed area of seal cushion. And, my door shut beautifully and the panel was aligned great. I reinstalled the striker with a small adjustment and the door shut like new. The new seal went in and I made one tiny adjustment in the door as it was just barely skimming the new seal. No sag, perfect alignment, no seal interference.
Cheap and lazy fix: Carefully cut the smashed seal cushion from the main seal lip that secures to the car with a razor blade and move it away from the door or until the seal cushion edge isn't sticking up. Re-glue with 3M super weather-strip adhesive. I did this on my passenger side for a temp fix and well, it worked great for now. Can't even tell.
Tip 2: Your door latch is sticking and hitting the striker. Acts like a door sag issue.
The door latches have some sort of plastic coating over the metal hook/latch that secures it on the striker. On mine, this stuff is wearing out and peeling away from the metal hook, causing it to start to bind when the hook mechanism tries to retract for it to open. On my passenger door, it acted like it was catching the seal or the door was sagging because it was jumping the hook at the striker. I thought it was catching the seal. Once I figured this out, I cut the bad/damaged plastic away from the latch hook, cleaned and lubricated the latch, verified operation and the issue went away. Door closes like new.
This is all not to assume that you don't have a door sag problem, but I think the worn seal is worth every look, as is the door latch mechanism operation!
I'll see if I can document the seal replacement and show the issue in an update here in a week or two when I start to prep for the new season. I'm finally putting in a new passenger seal (BTW, you can still buy OEM mopar seals from an online mopar direct wholesaler... don't spend $350 from a 3rd party Viper parts site).
Door Seal part # 04763879AE and 04763878AE
Tip one: It's the door seal, not your door sagging.
This car has a terrible door and seal clearance. Little or no clearance between the door and the seal. With the door properly aligned panel wise, you may STILL have interference between the door seal and door panel, simply because of how close they are by design. Many people will just go adjust the door up to clear it, thinking its a sag issue, but ultimately make the door shell stick up at the quarter because the door wasn't actually the core issue. I'm a stickler for panel alignment, so this was not a solution.
My car had seen the previous owner adjust the door way up. It cleared the seal, but it looked terrible. Once I got the door down to correct alignment, BOOM.... no shut, hitting seal. I thought to myself, maybe the door just seems right because its jumping up on the seal or striker and its actually hanging.... so I removed the striker and shut the door. Door still hit seal, but it seemed very well aligned. At this point, I observed the overall seal and realized just how smashed it was around the striker area compared to other portions. It was clearly sticking out past the metal enforced lip the seal is attached to on the body of the door opening. Once I knew I had a new seal coming, I played around some more.... I simply cut out the smashed area of seal cushion. And, my door shut beautifully and the panel was aligned great. I reinstalled the striker with a small adjustment and the door shut like new. The new seal went in and I made one tiny adjustment in the door as it was just barely skimming the new seal. No sag, perfect alignment, no seal interference.
Cheap and lazy fix: Carefully cut the smashed seal cushion from the main seal lip that secures to the car with a razor blade and move it away from the door or until the seal cushion edge isn't sticking up. Re-glue with 3M super weather-strip adhesive. I did this on my passenger side for a temp fix and well, it worked great for now. Can't even tell.
Tip 2: Your door latch is sticking and hitting the striker. Acts like a door sag issue.
The door latches have some sort of plastic coating over the metal hook/latch that secures it on the striker. On mine, this stuff is wearing out and peeling away from the metal hook, causing it to start to bind when the hook mechanism tries to retract for it to open. On my passenger door, it acted like it was catching the seal or the door was sagging because it was jumping the hook at the striker. I thought it was catching the seal. Once I figured this out, I cut the bad/damaged plastic away from the latch hook, cleaned and lubricated the latch, verified operation and the issue went away. Door closes like new.
This is all not to assume that you don't have a door sag problem, but I think the worn seal is worth every look, as is the door latch mechanism operation!
I'll see if I can document the seal replacement and show the issue in an update here in a week or two when I start to prep for the new season. I'm finally putting in a new passenger seal (BTW, you can still buy OEM mopar seals from an online mopar direct wholesaler... don't spend $350 from a 3rd party Viper parts site).
Door Seal part # 04763879AE and 04763878AE
