Door lock problems

[John]

The drivers door on my Excel SE refused to unlock recently. It was after one of our hottest days. Cool garage first thing no problem, but after sitting outside all day at work in the baking sun, the handle refused to lift and unlatch.

After crawling in through the passenger door I managed to get the drivers door open. I then took the interior and exterior handles off, along with the latch and rods, cleaned everything, greased the latch, and adjusted it all as per the manual. All seemed well till the next hot day - the same thing happened!

Given that the passenger side also plays up, sometimes popping open while the car is moving, I thought I'd try a different approach.

The on-line parts drawings for the striker plate show an abrasive shim, two types, plus packing shims of 1.5 and 3 mm, use "as required". I don't think any of these shims and spacers are available anymore, and mine had none.

I was surprised that the striker plate could be shimmed out by that amount without the latch binding, so I cut a spacer from 2mm neoprene sheet to fit as a shim behind each striker. Both doors closed nicely and the striker grips well to the body, so I'll see how they behave in the wild and will post an update.

John

[John]

Wrong! These shims are still available, SJ list a stainless "abrasive" shim, also plain shims of 1.5 or 3.0 mm. I'm not sure how you would calculate how many to use, if any, other than by trial and error. I'll see how the rubber shim idea works first, may fit correct parts later if the door latches behave.

John

[Hawaiis0]

Have your window frames gone and the door has sunk?

[John]

No, the frames are OK and the door hinges aren't worn, if I try to lift the doors I can't detect any movement.

[John]

Another hot day but no further problems with my door handles, so shimming out the striker plates appears to have improved matters without me having to mess with the rods and latches.

Thinking about this, the shimming makes sense. The latches are Triumph Dolomite, and the door panel gaps on the Excel are a lot bigger than those on the Triumph - hence the use of shims to bring the striker into the correct position for correct latch operation.

It would be interesting to know how the cars were from the factory. Mine had none when I bought it in 2013, but the back of the strikers had the impression of an original "abrasive shim" - so it had those at least, and maybe some "as required" 1.5 or 3.0 mm plain shims as well. So potentially significant, and may explain why my door latches wouldn't operate properly even with the rods set up as per workshop manual.

John

[Hawaiis0]

Although the latches are Triumph based they are modified so are not a direct swap

[bash]

Guide from Angus.
Bash
viewtopic.php?t=10072

[John]

Good write up from Angus there. There's a Dolomite rear door latch on eBay at the moment, part no. YKC 475. Similar, but definitely not the same. Looks like it has a child lock lever and the rod pivot plates look different. But the body and latch look the same. I suppose the pivot plates had to be altered to work with the Toyota door handles. The lower pivot on my z-plate has a blob of weld on it - previous owner, or is that how they came?!

[MetBlue]

Blob of weld is standard lotus fitment.
That Z plate is a right game to get set. I found slop in the pivots is better than trying to shim out. The z plate doesn't align with (point to) the door handle levers so needs plenty of play.

[John]

OK, thats good to know. Yes, setting the rods correctly re. the z plate isn't easy is it. The door beam and door skin make it difficult to see what you're doing.