Door Closing Force - Can It Be Adjusted?

[Vlad Soare]

Hello,

The passenger's door has to be slammed a bit harder than usual to close completely. This doesn't appear to be a matter of alignment, though. The door looks perfectly aligned with the body in all directions, the window is also perfectly aligned with the rubber seal, everything looks and works fine. But it doesn't close completely unless slammed quite hard. If the driver's door were the same I would dismiss it as a standard Mustang characteristic. But it's not. The driver's door closes easily, as expected.
Can this be adjusted somehow, but without messing with the door alignment (because the door is already aligned correctly)?

What I noticed after carefully comparing the two doors was this: if I close the driver's door slowly, pushing it gently past the first click, it moves perfectly horizontally. If I do this with the passenger's door, when it goes past the first closing point it seems to move a tiny bit downwards, as if the door striker were slighly lower than the door latch.
Could this be it?
Is the door striker adjustable? Can I loosen the torx screws and move the striker one millimeter higher? Will this fix it? Or would I risk messing up the door alignment?

Thank you.

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[AceS550]

The door striker is adjustable. I would adjust it and recheck the door alignment, the difference may not even be noticeable.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

 

[StangTime]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Mark the original location with some painters tape along the edges of the striker plate. Just in case you need to go back to it's original position.

One thing to check... is the passenger window dropping down like it is supposed to when you open the door?

 

[Cobra Jet]

@Vlad Soare

Here ya go, go to Posts 41 and 44 in the below link, I posted valuable Alignment PDFs that will help you out:
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...with-a-happy-ending.19261/page-3#post-2584373

oh and if you ever need to go deeper by removing a door, here’s that too....
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...ve-and-re-install-a-door.131524/#post-2713718

 

[Elp_jc]

I have a similar problem than the OP, but on the driver's side. I lubed everything like crazy, so that's not it. My problem doesn't seem to be alignment, but that the striker has to go deeper into my door than the passenger one, thus needing a harder 'slam'. But the weird thing is while both doors seem well aligned vertically, they stick out a little bit over the rear fender, so it wouldn't make much sense to adjust my door to stick even more farther out. It's a tiny bit on both sides, but not flush with the fenders. Vertically, I didn't say perfect above (only 'well'. Ha ha), because the upper and lower creases on the door and fender don't align perfectly, so it'd be impossible to make both perfect (hope I'm making sense).

At any rate, I don't like having to semi-slam my stupid door every time I drive the car... and the worst part is that it sounds like crap; like something is going to fall off. Ha ha. But it's not a big deal. And if I try to adjust it to close easier, I might get a window wind leak, since it'd be pressing against the seal less. And as it is now, it looks like the window is barely pressing the seal as it is, so will probably leave it alone. And also because the door would stick out more in relation to the rear fender. Typical Ford QC. Ha ha. But this issue (out of the many my car has) doesn't bother me that much, fortunately.

Finally, still curious if the striker itself (on the door jamb) can really be adjusted. I was under the impression that adjustments were only done at the door. OP, please post what you found . Thank you.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Mark the original location with some painters tape along the edges of the striker plate. Just in case you need to go back to it's original position.

Good idea.

One thing to check... is the passenger window dropping down like it is supposed to when you open the door?

Yes, it is. Everything is working fine.

@Vlad Soare

Here ya go, go to Posts 41 and 44 in the below link, I posted valuable Alignment PDFs that will help you out:
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...with-a-happy-ending.19261/page-3#post-2584373

oh and if you ever need to go deeper by removing a door, here’s that too....
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...ve-and-re-install-a-door.131524/#post-2713718

Thank you.
It says the door striker screws should be torqued to 25 Nm. Damn! One of my torque wrenches goes up to 22.5, and the other starts from 30. Just my luck...

 

[Vlad Soare]

The door striker doesn't seem to be actually adjustable, unless I'm missing something. Once you loosen the torx screws you can wiggle the striker a bit, but not actually move it. I mean, as soon as you start tightening the screws back the striker will center itself in the original (and apparently only) position.
I moved it a bit upwards, tighened the screws a bit (not completely), and the door closed easily. Tightened them a bit more, the door closed easily. Tightened them to the prescribed torque, and now the door had to be slammed to close.
So I guess it's the door itself that must be adjusted, and I don't want to do that, because it's perfectly aligned as it is, and I don't want to make it worse.
I can live with it.

 

[Elp_jc]

That's what I thought. Having said that, you could try loosening the door bolts, and maybe you can move latch assembly the millimeter or so that you need. That wouldn't change the alignment at all, so you could give it a try. And let us know if it worked or not. I'm probably going to leave my door alone, because don't want to push it outward at all. But since yours is more of a upward/downward adjustment, you could try. But make sure you don't move it outward. Put tape along the edge of the latch assembly, so you only move it up or down (whatever you need). Good luck.

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