Passenger door rattle

[Bob Miller]

 

I have a 2017 1500 Silverado Crew Cab.

 

I’ve  posted about this before in various areas on this website and it’s driving me crazy because I’ll get it quiet for a little while then it comes back. 

 

 My passenger door rattles on bumpy roads. For the longest time I thought it was my passenger seat but after the dealer replaced the seat frame the rattle was still there. They replaced the door latch mechanism and it was still there after that. It wasn’t until I put black gorilla tape on the door striker that the rattle stopped. Unfortunately it only stopped it for a few weeks.  Then I  tried adjusting the door striker up and down, and I’ve sprayed WD40 brand white lithium grease all inside the door latch. When I do these things the rattle will go away for a week, maybe two weeks. Then it starts quietly coming back. I’ll spray more grease on the latch and it goes away. Only to return again eventually. 
 

I feel like this is something I can fix myself (maybe). I hate messing with the dealer for anything beyond oil changes as they either can’t reproduce the sound or simply just don’t fix it. 

one thing I’ve noticed on the passenger door is that when it’s closed it sticks out ever so slightly (like it isn’t closing flush against the cab). I can push the door closer into the cab but it slightly pops back out again.  I feel like this may be part of the problem.  
 

the striker only slides up and down however so I’m not sure how else to get it to close tighter to the cab?  
 

ideas , thoughts???

[Jsdirt]

10 model years later, and GM still sticks their customers with the same poorly engineered garbage. Unreal!

 

That was the first problem I had with my lemon of an '07 - started at 2k miles. I've got used to mine over the past 13 years (100k now). After 5 different attempts under warranty for them to correct it, they never did. Just slathered the latches with Lubriplate every time. I've got enough in there to last another 3 decades. Didn't fix it - just a bandaid. It is getting worse with age, too. I've had too many other more pressing problems than to deal with that, though (spider gears in the rear end shearing all their teeth off, for starters, and an engine making metal with low miles).

 

Lately I've noticed gurgling in the doors whenever it rains, and even more vibrations and rattles in the interior now that it's getting up there in age. My El Camino was almost 30 years old when I first bought it - had NONE of these problems. I could've bought SIXTY El Caminos for what I paid for the Silverado, too.

 

Bottom line - whatever fix you come up with, it's guaranteed to come back (unless you completely re-engineer the doors yourself).

 

Can't give you any concrete fixes. I've been to disgusted with the truck to attempt any. Pretty soon, the lower latches will just rust right out anyway, so that'll be the least of my issues ...

[tlaw91]

Ok so you mentioned not good fitment to the body surface indicating a mounting issue.

Makes sense as to why a lubricant would work for a while then stop, it’s filling a gap. Then when it wears off, noise reappears.

This is the GM procedure for your exact vehicle to adjust your door inwards. Sounds like you are ready to tackle this yourself, and I hope you resolve it to get back to enjoying your truck again.

Up/Down or In/Out Adjustment
Open the door.
Note: The door side upper and lower hinge bolts must remain tight enough to retain door adjusted position.
Apply masking tape to the quarter panel edge and the door edges.
Loosen the door side hinge bolts.
Do not remove the bolts from the door.
Adjust the door up or down by repositioning the door as needed.
Note: If proper door adjustment cannot be made with original equipment door side bolts, refer to catalog for non-shouldered service bolts that will allow additional adjustment.
Adjust the door in or out by repositioning the door as needed.

Hope this helps

-GM tech


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[Bob Miller]

10 hours ago, Jsdirt said:

10 model years later, and GM still sticks their customers with the same poorly engineered garbage. Unreal!

 

That was the first problem I had with my lemon of an '07 - started at 2k miles. I've got used to mine over the past 13 years (100k now). After 5 different attempts under warranty for them to correct it, they never did. Just slathered the latches with Lubriplate every time. I've got enough in there to last another 3 decades. Didn't fix it - just a bandaid. It is getting worse with age, too. I've had too many other more pressing problems than to deal with that, though (spider gears in the rear end shearing all their teeth off, for starters, and an engine making metal with low miles).

 

Lately I've noticed gurgling in the doors whenever it rains, and even more vibrations and rattles in the interior now that it's getting up there in age. My El Camino was almost 30 years old when I first bought it - had NONE of these problems. I could've bought SIXTY El Caminos for what I paid for the Silverado, too.

 

Bottom line - whatever fix you come up with, it's guaranteed to come back (unless you completely re-engineer the doors yourself).

 

Can't give you any concrete fixes. I've been to disgusted with the truck to attempt any. Pretty soon, the lower latches will just rust right out anyway, so that'll be the least of my issues ...

Its funny, I've basically been a GM guy my whole life and I don't recall ever having a GM product that had these kinds of weird, irritating rattles inside the cabin - and this includes 1980s GM products.  LOL.  Some days the truck is super quiet.  Other days the dash rattles and the door makes noises.  Then next day, its quiet again.  So odd.

 

I really do have a love hate relationship with this truck.  On days when its quiet I really enjoy it - and I think its a really good looking truck too. But when I start hearing that door vibrate its like the only thing I hear and it really makes me wonder how in the world a fairly new vehicle could have that kind of an issue. 

 

Another irritating problem with this truck - coupled with living in Houston - is that its turned out to be a magnet for a**holes.  I've had the wheels stolen off of it once, and then two weeks ago someone completely damaged my door breaking into the stupid thing - both times right in front of my house. 

 

 

[Bob Miller]

5 minutes ago, tlaw91 said:

Ok so you mentioned not good fitment to the body surface indicating a mounting issue.

Makes sense as to why a lubricant would work for a while then stop, it’s filling a gap. Then when it wears off, noise reappears.

This is the GM procedure for your exact vehicle to adjust your door inwards. Sounds like you are ready to tackle this yourself, and I hope you resolve it to get back to enjoying your truck again.

Up/Down or In/Out Adjustment
Open the door.
Note: The door side upper and lower hinge bolts must remain tight enough to retain door adjusted position.
Apply masking tape to the quarter panel edge and the door edges.
Loosen the door side hinge bolts.
Do not remove the bolts from the door.
Adjust the door up or down by repositioning the door as needed.
Note: If proper door adjustment cannot be made with original equipment door side bolts, refer to catalog for non-shouldered service bolts that will allow additional adjustment.
Adjust the door in or out by repositioning the door as needed.

Hope this helps

-GM tech


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cool, thanks for posting this.  Its supposed to be an nice weekend coming up down here so I may give this a whirl. 

 

I had a feeling it was an adjustment issue but was hoping the striker adjustment would be enough to do the trick.

[Bob Miller]

On 2/4/2020 at 8:59 AM, tlaw91 said:

Ok so you mentioned not good fitment to the body surface indicating a mounting issue.

Makes sense as to why a lubricant would work for a while then stop, it’s filling a gap. Then when it wears off, noise reappears.

This is the GM procedure for your exact vehicle to adjust your door inwards. Sounds like you are ready to tackle this yourself, and I hope you resolve it to get back to enjoying your truck again.

Up/Down or In/Out Adjustment
Open the door.
Note: The door side upper and lower hinge bolts must remain tight enough to retain door adjusted position.
Apply masking tape to the quarter panel edge and the door edges.
Loosen the door side hinge bolts.
Do not remove the bolts from the door.
Adjust the door up or down by repositioning the door as needed.
Note: If proper door adjustment cannot be made with original equipment door side bolts, refer to catalog for non-shouldered service bolts that will allow additional adjustment.
Adjust the door in or out by repositioning the door as needed.

Hope this helps

-GM tech


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm assuming when they say "door side hinge bolts" they mean the two bolts that I have arrows pointing to in the picture?  (This is a picture of the passenger side door hinge facing forward, the two bolts are on the door)

[tlaw91]

Yes


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[tlaw91]

Yes


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[Bob Miller]

1 hour ago, tlaw91 said:

Yes


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Cool , thanks!

[Bob Miller]

On 2/5/2020 at 3:18 PM, tlaw91 said:

Yes


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I just got around to do messing with this today.  I’ve been putting tape on the striker in the meantime but it starting wearing off and rattling again .

 

So Is there some kind of trick to getting the door to move inwards once those bolts are loosened up?  It seems that once I loosened the bolts the door didn’t really want to move in and out that much

 

While trying to get the door to move in a little more i actually shut the door and gently pushed on it against the truck (with the bolts still loosened).  After that and trying a few more times to pull the door inwards i tightened the bolts back up, and then readjusted the striker again by loosening that and shutting the door on it a few times to center it up.

 

Overall it seemed the door moved in slightly, but it still sticks out some when closed.  

 

I drove around for a few minutes after and the rattle seems to be gone. pretty much but I’d be willing to loosen those up and try it again if I could figure out how to get the door pulled inwards a little tighter.

 

thoughts?

[tlaw91]

I’ve never done it before so you’re on your own there. Sounds like you’re almost there though!


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[Bob Miller]

4 hours ago, tlaw91 said:

I’ve never done it before so you’re on your own there. Sounds like you’re almost there though!


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I actually watched a video on Youtube (In German w/English subtitles lol) about adjusting the door on a Sprinter van.   Same procedure pretty much , but what they did was completely removed the striker and then did the adjustment.   I guess with the striker there, when you go to adjust the door by closing it the striker will actually make it go back to the "wrong" position it was in in the first place.  Which I guess sort of makes sense.   They adjusted the door how they liked it, tightened up the hinge bolts, then put the striker back on

 

May try it that way..