Door won't stay closed

[dancroft1984]

Hi All,
My passenger door appears to not be holding closed. If I push a screwdriver into the latch (simulating the hook attached to the b-pillar) it seems to click once then twice like it should, but when I close it it seems to bounce open slightly and only hold on the one click, not the second. That's even if I give it a good shove to make it click that second time. I've tried moving the b-pillar hook slightly out towards the edge of the car, but no joy.
When it's on that one click, with a good pull I can swing the door open, so it's not ideal for roundabouts!
Any ideas?
My first guess is that I'll have to rebuild the latch like on MetBlue's thread/Angus' website, but if it's something else I'd rather know now than figure it out after!
Thanks,
Dan

[John]

Hi Dan

I had exactly the same problem on mine, I solved it by adding some packing behind the striker loop on the B post. Lotus show an "abrasive shim" behind the striker loop, mine had nothing. I cut some 2 mm thick neoprene rubber sheet to fit behind the loop and it made a huge difference. Got the sheet from a boat chandlers. Doors now close with no bounce back, and they stay shut whilst driving!

Link to my post: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13189

Just be careful when fitting the shim, take one screw out at a time. Take both out and the steel plate they screw into drops down into your sill, take the top one out first like I did and the plate rotates and you have a job getting it back into position again.

I also checked and adjusted the latch and rods, but it was shimming out the striker loop that made the biggest difference so I'd check that out first, it may give you a quick fix.

Good luck

John

[Alan_M]

Does the exterior door handle move up and down - the whole handle, not the flap you pull to open.
This is quite common as the bolt that clamps the handle in place will not be able to tighten - the threaded insert in the handle breaks away. This can give the symptoms you have - just repaired mine a couple of months ago.
Also if the rods are poorly adjusted it can stop latch working.

[dancroft1984]

Thanks guys, I'll give those a go first.

[MetBlue]

I had similar problems not so long back.
First repair the bolts holding external handle if either are broken.
If they are good, disconnect the rods from the interior handle and see if behaves same way with just exterior handle (good idea to stay outside the car at this point ). If it does, play with the rod lengths and make sure the Z plate freely jumps up slightly as door latches.
If problem still exists you could try drilling out the rivet and straightening/ regreasing everything inside as in my resto thread.

Bad news is I'd done all the above and still had a problem ( Door just kept bouncing open when slamming closed). Solved it just by slackening slightly a couple of the 4mm hex head screws that hold the latch onto the door beam. Small amount of thread lock, and they've been good now for over 6 months.

Good luck.

[dancroft1984]

I've not had the chance to dive properly into it yet, but I did slacken the bolts and that has improved it slightly.

[DavidOliver]

Hi Dan.
I wrote a post dated April 28 2022 titled Door Latch adjustment.
You will see the latch internal mechanism which I filed to recover a sharp profile on the circular catch.
You might be interested.

Dave the cog.

[Skyedriver]

Must be a common problem, I've spent about 3 days on the passenger door. Being up against the garage wall isn't helping. I've spaced out the B Pillar U shaped keep, got everything lined up and the door catches nicely on the first click but doesn't want to actually reach the second one. A slam just causes a bounce, a good shove with my bum will get the second click but not sure passengers will appreciate a view of my backside while I close the door for them. The whole lot closes easier if I pull the external handle open while I close the door so having read Medblue's thread on the subject it's looking like I need to get the door card off and remove the latch mechanism. Have to get the car out of the garage to do that. Wish it would top raining.

[dancroft1984]

Update - I lubed the bejeezus out of it whilst operating the handle, clicking the latch to and fro with a screwdriver, etc and now all is good. Just in case anyone finds this thread wondering if there was a fix.