Side door slightly opening on bumps (T25)

[helcat]

Hi,

My 1990 T25 multivan is all coming together but I have this niggly problem with the side door.

When I go over bumps it opens slighlty, not unlocked, the lock is still completely engaged as far as I can tell, and the door wont open, but its just slightly open.

I can replacate the small opening if I weakly slide the door closed, the lock engages but the door is still slightly open. If I slam it it's fine.

Any ideas what the cause and solution for this could be?

The roads here are very patchy so I can test quite easily!

[garyd]

A common problem - especially in winter it seems.

First thing to note is that the catch has two 'locked' positions - ie a safety and a fully closed position. What you are seeing is the door not being quite fully closed and then releasing to the safety position.

With the door open, look at the lock mechanism on the rear edge. You should see an 'n' shaped piece pivoted at the top and a second lower piece that engages with it as it closes. Use a screwdriver or piece of rod to simulate the locking pin on the door frame and pivot the 'n' down and outwards (clockwise) to the vertical position. As it does so, the second piece will rotate anti-clockwise and catch the end of the 'n' to hold it. Keep a close eye and you will see there are two positions of engagement.

To deal with the issue, firstly clean and lubricate the sliding gear at the back of the door (behind the waist rail cover on the outside of the van. ) There are rollers, pivots and a long track to deal with here. The cover comes off easily after releasing the two self-tapping screws along the bottom edge. Check that the door latch is clean and lubed and moving freely. Also check the condition and location of the rubber door seal all the way around but especially at the front of the opening

Once you've done that, close the door 'fully' from inside and then check that the lower latching piece has fully engaged in the lock position. If you still have the problem, mark (pencil line) the location of the lock pin in the rear face of the door frame then slacken it (15mm ring spanner) and tap it gently outwards just 1mm at a time. Tighten and test until the door stays locked shut.

There is often a batch of questions about this problem as we go into winter and that may be because the seal rubber is harder and more resistant to allowing the door to close quite enough for the second latch to fully engage.

Hope this helps

[helcat]

That was a huge amount of help, thank you. I did all you suggested but all seemed intact and it was fully engaging so resorted to moving the pin outwards.

There was only about a mm or so left to move it so it's fully adjusted out now. I haven't had a chance to test drive but am hoping that has done it.

Thanks again.

[CovKid]

What tends to happen is if a door starts to have problems, people really slam it in an attempt to compensate and this eventually puts strain on the catch, opening it up, bending it slightly, or weakening any spring. If you work on that basis, you should be able to solve it.

This may or may not be useful to you:

http://wiki.club8090.co.uk/index.php/Bo ... _and_Parts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The winter issues is more down to a partially frozen and stiff rubber door seal and old grease which may delay the speed at which the catch closes. You need very low temperatures for that one to develop.