Driver side door not closing like before-SOLVED

I noticed recently that when i close my driver side front door that the light is not going out. It seems that the door closes but not all the way. Need to reopen and go again a little harder to get it to close.

I took a look at the latch ( see below ) and it seems to be hanging a little low and the plastic coating is coming off. Plastic coating? What?


this is the passenger side below. ( just a little blurred, sorry )


Going to lube it a little and see if that helps but obviously I will need to replace this soon.
Anyone been there before and threaded about it?

 

Tighten all hinges bolts possible. They are 10mm. There are 2 you can’t reach without a special angled box wrench.

Lube and check closings. You now may need a latch adjustment on the latch side if things haven’t improved.

 

Same problem here. Constantly need to re-shut my door and sometimes leads to slamming. Seems like the door sags, will also look into using some lithium grease.

 

Are your hinge bushings worn out causing the door to sag?

 

I experienced a similar issue in the past. Sometimes I would have to re-shut the door or push that latch all the way up manually. My plastic has also worn away. I applied white lithium about two years ago and it has fixed the problem for me. Currently I am not having issues, but I noticed yesterday that the latch isn't going completely up, but not as bad as before. I will apply more white lithium like before.

 

Mine, nope. i did a wiggle check and the door hinges are solid.

 

Lift hard on the rear of the door. It’s an awkward position so if you’ve got a bad back don’t. They make a tool for it in that case. Amazon sells sthe. Steck branded one. Nice tool. “Steck door alignment bar”
ETA A little goes a long way with the bar and watch the front edge of your door that it doesn’t bang into the back of the fender if you really lay into it.

 

SOLVED.
.

Just a few squirts all up inside and she was happy to latch nice and easy for me once again. I lubed up the rest of them whilst at it.
Don't know what i would do without Duct tape and Wd-40.

 

Hooray! PM FTW!

X2 on the essential tools.

 

Any particular part you applied it to, or just lube the whole thing? Mine's getting finicky so I'm going to try this.

 

I pretty much lubed the whole thing and used a Q-tip to get on inside. Push the latch in, apply lube, use door handle to release latch, repeat.

 

WDfort-tay is NOT an lubricant...it is a water displacement product. As it dries, it will leave a residue...very bad when used for, say, cleaning firearms or other tight-clearance machined parts. Instead using a penetrating oil/lube like PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench or Kroil. If you have saggy doors, quit leanin on the door while standing up hootin at the girls! And no night hunting off the road in the same stance. Very bad truck mojo! Take care of your tool(s) and they'll take care of you! Using the correct lube will also keep you out of shotgun weddings as the guest of honor...just sayin'.

 

Going to attempt to bring this post back from the dead.

I have attempted lubing and have damn near gone through entire can. It's helped, but nowhere near solved the problem. I'm thinking that it may be this piece of rubber/plastic that has been ravaged and now just hangs on for dear life. My next step is to cut this out, spray lube like a madman again, and hope it's solved. Currently, the door will not shut without me manually pushing this piece up.

 

I swear there is at least one more thread discussing this plastic bit inside the door latch mechanism. I just couldn't find it.

I've seen doors with and without it. That said, if it were me, I'd probably get a pair of needlenose, and grab here, pull as much out as I can. I suspect it's getting jammed up in the door. I reckon they probably skinned this in plstic for smoother operation, and rattle reduction.

 

Yeah, will do. Thanks for all the help. I will report back with how it goes

 

Not being a nega nancy but good luck with that. Took great pains in attempting to remove all that plastic(mine was red) on drvr door. I moved the exposed latch CW as much as it would go, cut plastic with exacto knife, rotated CCW, cut plastic but since plastic appeared to be wrapped around whole piece, it seemed futile. My last step was to remove the 2 rivets circled below but the bulldog in me said the hell with it at that point. After 20 yrs it had seen it's better days and new one from Ourisman was on front step in 3 days.

Good luck tho

my old latch....

 

Good deal, thank ya. I'm going to try in a bit and see how it goes. If it comes to it, do you know where I could find the OEM part for this?

 

Sometimes it isn't the latch; have you checked the "catch" to make sure it isn't loose or bent?

 

I do my OEM purchases with Ourisman Toyota which use to be McGeorge when I bought my right hand door lock acuator(the whole assembly). This was my part # for RH....
69030-0C021 ....it's for 2004-11 DC's.
It's according to which side you need, what part # it would be and you can buy just the latch actuator without motor if you wish.

Genuine Toyota Door Lock Actuator Motor part# 69030-0C021 for 2001-2011 Toyota | Ourisman Toyota Parts| Official Online Store

 

Shoot me your VIN in a PM, I can look it up for you. And tell me if driver (LH) or passenger (RH).

 

Nice, thank you!

 

It looks pretty good to me

 

Yup, I tried removing it and was able to take off about half of the plastic. I sprayed it with lube a good bit and it seems like it maybe helped some, but it still sticks down a little and needs to be manually pushed up.

 

What lube are you using? I normally use PTFE dry for internal stuff, and white lithium for latches. I've seen maybe in this thread and other places that white lithium is the shit to use here.