Adjusting door hinges - risky?

Retired Bob · October 10, 2014

My dealer has been trying to reduce the wind noise from my drivers side door. He has taped the door-to-frame seam and driven the truck - the noise is eliminated. He has adjusted the door striker and even installed a new door weather strip. While there may be some wind reduction, the noise has not been reduced in the 60mph range to the quiet level we both hear (do not hear) in driving other 2014 double cab LTs. He is now suggesting sending the truck to the off-site collusion center that does their body work to have the door hinges adjusted ,but, he said that is always risky of maybe making the noise worse as the hinges are put on at the factory with a robot to exacting and specific specs.

Is the slight improvement already done in wind noise reduction preferable to having a shop mess with the hinges? The wind noise is not excessive but still hearable by me (and the dealer) and it is sightly irritating to me at about 55mph and higher.

GTD · October 10, 2014

Bob not to sound like a smart ass rather than have someone mess with your hinges, I'd turn up the radio see if it covers it up. I'm not sure what it's for but the fender to body gaps of my Denali have this stuff that looks like carpet padding don't know if it's for sound deadening or not. The hinges are welded to the door jambs, can you imagine the mess that could result, plus the fix isn't guaranteed. IMO

fondupot · October 10, 2014

I agree with GTD.

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · October 10, 2014

Why not glue a second layer of weatherstripping to the factory weatherstripping. Don't even need to use the whole piece, just maybe cut the additional stripping in half (the long way, length wise) and then glue one of the halves to the factory stripping. Just a thought.

TJay74 · October 10, 2014

Why not have the service manager have the GM rep or one of the factory technician's come out first and look it over before going that route. it could be something that cant be repaired to factory specs, in that case it would lie on GM to replace the truck or set the repair procedure in place.

Jerry's Denali · October 11, 2014

I adjusted both of my driver side doors the day brought it home. It is whisper quiet now and only took 20 minutes

brandonbvr · October 18, 2014

I adjusted both of my driver side doors the day brought it home. It is whisper quiet now and only took 20 minutes

When you say you adjusted both doors do you mean the strikers? If so could you explain how this is done. Thank you

Retired Bob · October 18, 2014

As SouthernSilveradoGuy85 suggests, maybe some weatherstripping - Lowe's and THD offer several choices of weatherstripping that look like they could be used. Here is a link to a company that appears to make sponge rubber weatherstripping for vehicle doors:

http://www.mdteam.com/index.php/products/weatherstrip/rolled-packaged-door-a-window-weatherstrip

Frost King also has a highly rated (by users) foam that adheres well.

BTW, my 2014 truck has the door hinges bolted on (not welded). Still, it looks as tho the bolts probably go into non-adjustable holes. That probably means the collusion shop would need to weld the existing holes and drill and tap new holes - probably not something I want done.

Think I will experiment with the foam tape to see what happens - at least I will now if the wind noise is 'fixable'.

Edited October 18, 2014 by Retired Bob

Jerry's Denali · October 18, 2014

When you say you adjusted both doors do you mean the strikers? If so could you explain how this is done. Thank you

I loosened the top hinge fairly loose, the bottom hinge I just barely loosened(bolts holding hinge to cowl). I pushed the top hinge forward enough to line everything up. I did have to raise the striker slighty. Both of my driver side doors were sitting unlevel, i.e. the chrome strip and body lines did not line up at all..

Now everything is perfect. 10 minutes finding the wrench that would fit in such a tight area, 10 minutes adjusting.

Retired Bob · October 19, 2014

I did a 'dollar bill' test today - held a dollar bill against the weather stripping along the top of the drives side door and shut the door and then pulled the dollar bill out and observed the tightness of the bill to remove it. I did this test in multiple spots.

The dollar bill pulls out of the driver's side door with noticeably less resistance compared to the passenger side door which is harder to pull the dollar bill out.

The drivers side door (along the top) appears and feels to stick out from the top of the cab more than does the passenger side which seems to be more recessed compared with the top of the cab. Nothing drastic, but still noticeable.

On earlier dealer visits to solve the wind noise on the drivers side, per the Invoice - “Adjusted front and rear doors for better fit plus striker adjustment. Weatherstrip poor fit – ordered weatherstrip replacement - replaced weatherstripping”.

Still have the wind noise n the driver's side so, I will provide this dollar bill test result info to the dealer tech next week.

Retired Bob · November 5, 2014

The dealer ordered new door hinge bolts that are designed to allow some 'adjustment' to the door. Both the service manager and I agree the new bolts did not really help much so the next step is to send the truck to the body/collision shop where they have experts in body/frame/door/etc adjustments and let them make adjustments to the door so that it makes a tighter contact with the door frame. The drive's door does not contact the door frame as tightly as the passenger door does. I can stand in the bed and sight along the door to frame gap and it is so obvious that he driver side door needs adjustment. Hope this is the 'fix'.

ADB0627 · February 4, 2015

Was anyone able to get this resolved, either by dealer or body shop, by having them adjust the doors/striker bolt? Any tips? Picked my truck up from the dealer yesterday after they supposedly fixed the wind noise (and performed some other routine maintenance), needless to say I still have wind noise at around 70 MPH. Very irritating. Service document says "Adjust left and right front doors."

'14 Sierra CCSB

mikfort51 · February 4, 2015

I would make them keep trying until it's fixed, if they can't fix it they need to resolve it by offering you a truck without the defect. Don't do any makeshift repairs out of your pocket!

ADB0627 · February 9, 2015

Went back to the dealer this morning, now they feel the whistle is caused by the On-star antenna. Which they had to special order, and the saga continues...