When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
About 2 weeks ago, my driver's door developed an unpleasant thunking sound when being lowered to the stop and a loose-sounding rattle when closing the car door. So, I searched around this forum and essentially found the answer(s), but it took some time across many threads, and the photo that would have been very helpful was lost in the sands of internet time. So, in the interests of having this in one place for this particular problem:
I also removed the interior door sweep (water shedder) at the top. It appears to be held in place by clamp friction augmented by a little contact cement. Pull upward. I started at the imaginary b-pillar (toward the quarter panel window) working toward the a-pillar (the side with the mirror).
I found parts in the door well. Two are clearly buffers, GJA1817AB (the long one) and GJA1817BA (the short one). One is a screw that I'm still puzzled about. Picture of the parts found and the parts diagram for these parts is below
Parts found in the door
Parts found in the catalogue
I used the thread below to locate the small buffer on the door and reinstall. Wondered a bit why I only had three on both driver and passenger sides since there appear to be four in the thread below. However, since I didn't have any more after searching the door with a fiberscope, installed the third (the one I found) and moved on.
Unfortunately, the link is broken. So, to save the next person (or me) time when this happens again. Here is where the long buffer goes. Identified by the approximate mark left by the buffer from sitting there for a long time, now immortalized in shaky red pen. It is inside the door frame, near the middle, but slightly towards the front of the car, under the outer window sweep (water shedder), on the outer side of the door. Before reinstalling I compressed the metal clamp and augmented with contact cement. I could not get my hand in from the top, so I took the speaker out to get at it from the bottom, installed with the window all the way up. I put it behind where it was originally since the edge of the glass catches it on the way down.
For posterity, the picture of the location in both close up and overview is
Overview of where the large buffer goes. Location of buffer on door. Inside sweep has been removed. Mark confirmed by clean window where buffer was until recently. Buffer is installed by pushing the buffer on to the ledge with the felty bit facing towards the window. Approach for installing large buffer. Large buffer installed looking from inside of door outward. Installed from below through the speaker hole with the window fully up.
Also, all of the torx screws holding the mechanism in place were loose (not the current problem, though free play of the mechanism in the middle may have caused the current problem). I tightened them, then when I was done, put blue loctite on them and reinstalled them.
Proverbial loose screws
I then adjusted the door so the wind no longer whistled through the gap as found in these threads
I rooted around the door with a fiberscope for a while, but found no likely hole to stick my screw in. Since the window mechanism worked brilliantly, I ignored it in the end. It now sits in its own baggie in a box with the others from the "land of misfit parts".
When the car comes apart at 80 mph, I'm sure it will be attributable to that screw.
Nice work Dale and thanks for documenting very well.
You got me wondering now if that 4th small bumper I had in my door was really supposed to be a larger one. Your location for the large one is where I think I put the 4th small one. Perhaps my car may have gotten cheated out of a large one during assembly.
All of the guide mountings appeared to be populated (with a different variety of screw). If it was a late 70's Pontiac, it would just be spare engine parts that the line didn't care to install that day...
Another Jag, another similar set of problems. 2002 XK8, large buffer had fallen off of driver's door. One single small buffer fell from passenger door.
Car has not been driven much in a while, so passenger door was sticking because of the buffer unbalancing things, the screws being loose, and the friction of the elderly. A bit of molykote on the rails made it right as rain, young cat again.
Window Rattling/Thunking
