My dirvers side door seems to have so many problems with it.

1. I have to pretty much slam it to get it to close all the way. If I don't slam it then it pops to that kinda open kinda closed spot.

2. Its very hard to open. I have to pull up on th handle then yank to get it to open.

3. The exterior door handle seems to have clearence problems. When you pull on it, the top of the part that pulls out rubs the other part and has actully taken off the paint on part of it.

4. When it gets real cold, such as below freezing, the drivers side door won't unlock form the outside or the inside. however if it gets like that (I have to crawl in through the passenger side) I can run the heater for a while and that will allow me to unlock the drivers side door fromt he inside.

I'm pretty sure problem #2 and #3 are becasue of the handle assembly because I removed it one time and I can press down on the little rod that opens the door and it pops open like normal.

My passenger door works perfect.

Is it possible to swap the door handle assembly and swap the key hole from the old assembly to the new one? Is it hard?

Any ideas on what could be causing all of these problems?

Thanks for any help.
Hoainam

 

did you try to spary some WD 40 around the door hinges?

 

I had a similar problem....

Take the little triangular black plastic piece off the inside of the door (near the rear of the door) to expose the 2 10 mm hex nuts. Remove these and your outer handle and the inner workings of it are exposed.

Look at all the linkages, there are a **** load of them! and liberally spray them down with WD-40 or equivalent.
By the way, the handle mechanism should operate VERY freely with it hanging out like this, if it doesn't, keep lubing it up and working the handle until it does.

Lube the striker mechanism with some white lithium grease, lube the door hinges with some 3-in-One oil.

FDs are notorioulsy 'tight', meaning that they have good seals. Often times I have to forcefully shut the door, as the trapped air in the car creates a high pressure dome that wants to escape as the door is being shut.

It is NOT good to have to YANK on the outer handle, those things are just pot metal, not all that robust.....

 

My driver's door handle broke last year from being tight. The exterior handle got stiffer and stiffer over about a month until it broke. I replaced it with a new one (think it was $180!!) and still can't figure out what happened with the old one. Examining it in my hands showed no obvious problem but it was bound up. My best guess is that the pin which the handle pivots on gets bent and binds the mechanism. With the new handle the door just pops open.

 

is because the fd is airtight, mine is the same way, try shutting it with ur windows cracked a little bit. i always keep my hand on it while i shut it, so that it doesnt make that deep hollow sound. gong...

 

prew,

You must have 93 I test drove one the other day and I closed the day and thought it was a tin can. I guess the 94-95 have insulation in the doors because my 94 is soild when you close the door