Query Door Rattle

Hi to all,
Wondering has any other Navara owner experienced a "clunky solid" rattle coming from around the front door striker plate area. I would best describe it ( in laymens terms ) as the front doors moving up and down when the vehicle hits even moderate bumps ........on TAR roads....sought of like the body flexes ?????? Very annoying for a 2 month old Navara.........and for a vehicle that can be used to some degree off road.
Thank you in advance for any help / advice given.
Cheers.

Can't say I've noticed it in my 6 month old Nav. Have you checked all the door hinge bolts to make sure they are tight? it's an obvious one but sometimes obvious is the first thing overlooked.

Iv said it before, it sounds like my door and latch jump up and down on bumpy roads. I think its just a bit of play for the striker plate for when the door is closing.

Mine's nearing 3 months of age and I don't hear this. I'd check the striker height too, just in case it's a little out-of-adjustment.

Mine does that and has done since new on the passenger front door. Drives me nuts. Spoke to dealership and the comeback was partly good and partly bad.
Bad - not covered by warranty as it is an adjustment.
Good - the service manager does not let the mechanics adjust doors lest they get it all buggered up, not hard to do apparently.
The adjustment is in the hinges. I tried both the striker plate and the latch but they will only locate in one position. When I find time I am going to get it into the local panel shop for them to do it.
With my passenger door I can press against it when closed and see about 4-5mm of movement. The drivers door and the rear doors are fine except for very hard and sharp bumps on gravel etc. and then you get a lesser " Thunk " from possibly body flex and the weight of doors combined.
But I'm with you its incredibly annoying when it happens on the most minor irregularities on sealed road.

Go see a panel beater, they know how to do body adjustments way better then mechanics will.

Dave.

Went to see the local body shop the other day and the word from the workshop manager there was
"F#$% em thats a warranty issue. The door is properly fitted and all the lines are straight. Get them to fit a new rubber because it is not providing any spring. If they do that and it still continues get them to pay our cost of modifying the striker and plate so that the panels and door still line up!"
So I'm going to do that. Great to see someone that doesn't mince words.
Fixed it yesterday though with a Mcdonalds wrapper slammed in the door because it was all I could hear over the corrugations and bumps. Alas once I quietened that I could hear every other rattle and squeak from the dash and door trims.
Looks like I have to eat more Maccas to be able to wedge between all the rubbing and poorly fitting interior!

Have had another thought though and I will try it during the week - I am going to have another look at the striker plate and measure it up. Maybe try flipping it 180 deg. Just a thought I had yesterday and since the missus has it today I cant go try it.

I have welded up the holes in my striker plate, and re-drilled them 3mm over. Terrible design not having any adjustment, especially on suicide doors when door alignment is so crucial.

08KINGCAB said:

I have welded up the holes in my striker plate, and re-drilled them 3mm over. Terrible design not having any adjustment, especially on suicide doors when door alignment is so crucial.

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And the doors still line up?
Had considered doing same but its still brand new and I expect that my warranty is good for something.

Not that I'm seeing this problem but if I was I'd definitely be taking it back to Nissan and if the stealer I brought it from wouldn't fix it I'd just take it to another one until I either ran out of dealers or one of them fixed it. Surely there has to be one stealer in one of the local suburbs willing to look after you, especially if you make sweet eyes to them and promise to move all your business to them, of course you never do but they lie so why can't you

On the head there Krafty.
Since the last one said " Nope" I'm going to try exactly what you say armed with the fact " those buggers out there at ...... wont do it and this is what the panel beater said"
But still I would like to just try flipping the striker plate or at least measuring it up to see that it may not be the cause. I cant really see the door rubber being the major cause only the fact that the manufacturing tolerances between the striker, body and latch may all be all adding up to give this result.
I can tell you though that there are times on rough surfaces and corrugations that you feel like getting out and walking - it is that annoying.

I'd probably try flipping the plate but I doubt I'd try anything as drastic as welding and drilling until I'd exhausted all my other options after all thats what warranties are for and national warranties mean any bugger is suppose to fix it.

As much as I hate all stealerships these days for the few times I use them I'd rather travel 40ks to one I know will help me than travel 2ks to the one I know wont. Incompetent is too good of a word for my local stealer and even if he could fix something like a rattle in the door I wouldn't let him. Then again if I did tell my local about a door rattle they'd probably just put a dent in it like they did to a mates car when the "apprentice" backed another car into it in the car park, his car was in get the 1000K service. Glad my 1000K didn't have that listed in the book.

Aido said:

And the doors still line up?
Had considered doing same but its still brand new and I expect that my warranty is good for something.

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Doors hadn't dropped, just didn't close in tight enough against the rubber, I mentioned it to the dealer but was told that there was no current fix issued from Nissan, I don't have the time to stuff around trying to get it fixed, took me 20 minutes to do myself and cost nothing. If you want something done right your usually better off doing it yourself.

OK
So I thought before I looked. The plate cant be rotated 180deg because it is not symmetrical. So instead I swapped the drivers and passengers with no result. Exactly the same. Interesting to note that the passengers is showing alot of wear after only 13 000km from the door hopping up and down on it! So I concur with the panel shop - the rubber is at fault and doesn't provide enough force or spring to it. When possible its going to another dealer for their thoughts.
Also interesting to note that the rear door strikers have a plastic coating over the "D"

On a similar note of rattles from latches it's not the same latch but the principle is similar, I'm having rattle problem with my back seat latches. Any time I fold the seat down on either side the seats rattle on the latches for about 30 odd minutes of driving, after that time they settle down and I don't hear another squeak until I fold the seat again. Now that I know where the rattle is and know that it's not causing any damage I'm not overly worried about it but it's another Nissan quirk I guess.

The consequences of cost cutting and cheap labour..... You used to be able to count on toyota, nissan etc for a good quality jap car but it's becoming harder to find....

I have just developed a rattling sound on my passenger front door too. Took it in for the 20k service, and they replaced part of the seat belt, thinking it was the problem. But it is still their, so annoying... I hate rattles!!

I had one I was convinced was comming from the passenger windscreen pillar area but it turned out to bee the bottom ball joint. changed it and its like im not driving an 8 year old truck any more so Im gonna change em all.

Old.Tony said:

Mine's nearing 3 months of age and I don't hear this. I'd check the striker height too, just in case it's a little out-of-adjustment.

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Mines coming on 14 months old now and I have noticed the rattle for the past 3-4 months when going over bumps (small roundabouts) and on some dirt and corrugated roads (Access road to Stockton Beach along Lavis Lane to the Car park before you hit the soft stuff).

Has Nissan been able to rectify this from anyones experience. I was thinking of taking it down to Kloster Nissan in Newcastle they are my local dealer to get it checked out.

I found the problem since the dealer couldn't and wouldn't do anything about it. It is an obvious fault so they can't really dispute it.
Will take some pics this afternoon to illustrate. Waiting to hear back from Nissan Australia as to how they are going to rectify it.
For now I'll just say its a problem from the production line.