Rear Doors Tearing at Door Stops?
- Thread starter PabloCruise
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Done!
1st time in two years my rear doors both work the way they are supposed to. Thanks for the kick in the seat, inspiration thread. @PabloCruise
1st time in two years my rear doors both work the way they are supposed to. Thanks for the kick in the seat, inspiration thread. @PabloCruise
All these pictures are horrible to look at... I'm going to lock my rear doors from now on....
Resurrecting old post. I just finished repairing mine today, right-rear door. It tore out last winter, exactly like the picture in the 1st post. I kept an old wrecked door from our Highlander and cut the section out and trimmed it and welded it into the LC door. The Highlander sheet metal is thicker than the LC, so it should last forever. I had the door panel off to replace a broken window so not much more effort required to take the door off. The top bolt on the upper hinge and lower bolt on the lower hinge on the door side are close fit shoulder bolts so alignment isn't a problem going back together. Per a former reply, the problem looks like the "ramp" on the check-stop arm is too steep when fully opened and stresses the sheet metal when closing. I re-contoured the arms on a belt sander to make them much shallower and greased them with water resistant synthetic marine wheel bearing grease. The studs on the mounting dammit are too short to fit a thick backing plate behind the door. 1/16" was as thick as I could get to fit. Even with that, I had to machine off a portion of the flange nuts to get them started since the threads in the nut are recessed on the flange side. It looks like the rear doors are most prone to failing. My fronts and left rear still have no cracks at 225k miles. I greased them and will contour the arms one by one the next time I have to take the door panels off. It looks like the check stop assemblies are used on many Japanese brands but each one is a little different and LC rear doors are unique and don't cross-reference to other models. Next time I go to U-Pull-it, I'll see what other cars have similar arms. The Highlander front arm has a different bend than the LC rear. They are swap-able left to right, just flip them upside down. The end of the LC rear arm where the retainer pin is pressed in, has 646 stamped on it, there are no other part numbers or unique markings.
F*@k Me Hard!!! Just broke the new window. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE REAR DOORS IF THE WINDOWS DO NOT ROLL DOWN ALL THE WAY!!! If the window hangs and stalls about 3 inches before rolling down all the way, it's nature's way of telling you something is wrong. Stop what ever you're doing and roll the window back up before opening the door. Take the door panel off and remove the check/stop arm. The stupid check/stop arm that I so carefully repaired, made contact with the glass and put enough pressure on it to pop it into a million little fragments. I get to ride the little pony again, sigh! This time, I will use a nylon strap, similar to the wire rope solution per a couple posts above, and leave the rest of the doors alone. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it or keep on fixing it 'til it is broke. If there is any consolation, at least I know exactly step by step how to replace the window -- sigh!
I lubed the door checks, key barrels and latches on all my vehicles not a week ago. I do this at least twice a year. Did you find out the price of a door check on a LC? That's more than the price of a hinge!
New LC door checks are approx $150 dealer list from Toyota, less on Ebay. I'm not going to tempt fate and will go with a nylon strap instead. Something else is going on with my door. I suspect the mounting spot on mine could be canted and allows the arm to swing toward the glass. I made a temporary window while I wait for the new replacement to get here. 1/8" acrylic, 22-1/4" wide, 28" tall, 1-1/4 taper along top & bottom edges. Lift guide channel fits snugly if crimped tighter. I parked it fully closed and unplugged the motor.
Here is a link that shows what is inside these things. I always thought they had sprung rollers like a cupboard door latch but evidently not. So I guess just plain greasing or dry lubing with molylube would seem to be the best bet for PM.
Door Check Repair Kit Stay Strap Stopper Replace for Toyota and Lexus (2 doors) | eBay
The new car’s doors have rigid fixation in the utter and middle positions, but after a few years fixation weakens. This is a common problem that occurs in every second car. The reason for this is that the door check fixators are worn out.
www.ebay.com
I finally received and installed another used rear window. I discarded the original stop and replaced it with a nylon strap with a custom machined dogbone to mount to the door.
Well I unfortunately just joined this party. I just thought that clunk was a 21 year old door noise.
My rear ds door:
Took the stop off the B pillar and pushed it into the door for now:
rear PS door is fine, but will clean and lube.
Time to asses: 1) body shop (anyone pay for this) 2) weld myself (possible) or enlist local help or 3) build a strap solution. @PabloCruise you still around northern CO? Might be interested to pick your brain.
My rear ds door:
Took the stop off the B pillar and pushed it into the door for now:
rear PS door is fine, but will clean and lube.
Time to asses: 1) body shop (anyone pay for this) 2) weld myself (possible) or enlist local help or 3) build a strap solution. @PabloCruise you still around northern CO? Might be interested to pick your brain.
gregnash
Anal Retentive Analyst
This is something that I noticed on both my rear doors. Now that I will be moving into a new place that HOPEFULLY has 220v in the garage I will plan to fix with a piece of cut sheet like you all have. Mine is just as the cracked stage and I don't use the rear doors all the often so it is ok for the time being.
Sucks that this area is so problematic.
Sucks that this area is so problematic.
Maybe you can just put a plate on and tack it back together?
gregnash
Anal Retentive Analyst
I had thought of doing that but really would rather do it properly so that it will last. I will grab something like 10-12ga steel from Lowes and then tack weld that in place.
Places that there is a tear already I will clean up and see if there is enough material to weld, if not then I will just JBWeld and then weld the plate of that.
PabloCruise
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #55
I am still here Brother!
Right one I checked and you are over on RS too (I am Shuksan over there), which is where I am more often. Got some good feedback already and I am feeling decent about tackling this. Your info here is great.
PabloCruise
SILVER Star
- Thread starter
- #57
Good luck Mate! I don’t get over to the RS forum as often as I should...
You can add me to the list of broken doors at 275K. Rear passenger side fully pushed in and after checking the rear driver side it's cracked and ready to give out soon. Fronts don't seem to be an issue. I had cleaned and lubed these in the past, mostly because of squeaking since I didn't know this was an issue. I don't think lubing will solve all the problems, it seems the spring loaded rollers inside the housing have seized up pretty bad on mine, it takes a tremendous amount of force to push it through the stops. Going to soak them in acetone and lube to see if they are salvageable.
I went ahead and made a template similar to @PabloCruise in post 31 and sent it to Online Laser and CNC cutting for metals and plastics - Instant Quotes - https://sendcutsend.com to be cut in 11g sheet metal. I will have the passenger side cut out and welded in and hoping I can just bolt the plate on the driver side to prevent it from cracking further and pushing through. I had to order 15 piece to meet the metal minimum so if they work out I will ship anyone a set for the shipping cost.
I went ahead and made a template similar to @PabloCruise in post 31 and sent it to Online Laser and CNC cutting for metals and plastics - Instant Quotes - https://sendcutsend.com to be cut in 11g sheet metal. I will have the passenger side cut out and welded in and hoping I can just bolt the plate on the driver side to prevent it from cracking further and pushing through. I had to order 15 piece to meet the metal minimum so if they work out I will ship anyone a set for the shipping cost.
Last edited:
I lube these door checks religiously every 3 to 4 months. Sprayed wd40 through the opening and then apply grease. Since this door check is inside the weather strip, it will not collect dust. My drivers door made a weird noice but after lubing, no more sounds. I even did this to my newly acquired taco.
I found this forum after rear driver side door was noticeably stiff and popping when opening and closing. Did not see any damage to metal (yet...). Cleaned and lubed using some bike chain oil that I had laying around. Squirted it any where I could. Opened and shut many times and kept applying oil. Doors are operating much better.
PO let this LX sat for long periods of time and the rear doors appear to have been rarely used. Guessing the best thing to do is to remove the door panel and do a deep clean and grease to prevent this from becoming a bigger issue as many posted above. Either way the bike oil seems to have bought me some time...
PO let this LX sat for long periods of time and the rear doors appear to have been rarely used. Guessing the best thing to do is to remove the door panel and do a deep clean and grease to prevent this from becoming a bigger issue as many posted above. Either way the bike oil seems to have bought me some time...
