Why is my door keep-it-openner not working?

The driver's door on my 2001 XJ swings freely, no resistance at all, which means I have to be careful in parking lots and have to hold the door open to get in or out. My front passenger's door is fine. I notices that the arm that attaches to the door frame and enters the door, is firmly in place on the passenger's side, but loose on the driver's side. I final got around to pulling the door panel and speaker off to investigate. The following picture is a view of the area in question from the speaker's point of view. So what's the problem? My guess is that larger rubber piece is what does all the work and it's worn out. What do you think (or know)?



Update (25 minutes later):
I pulled the unit out of the door. The white stuff is just grease. The rubber is just fine and nothing more than dampener. All the grease has turned to gum. I will have to remove it all and relube. The mechanism, I don't understand yet. It seems something is missing. The large pin you see to the left holds a swinging caster (bracket and wheel). The caster is free to rotate about the pin and seems to be completely out of play. In other words, it's doing nothing. There is a shorter pin to the right that you can barely see behind the rubber dampener. It holds a wheel that can only spin as it comes in contact with the lobes on the arm. I would think the caster should have a spring or something on it to push the aforementioned arm into the other wheel so the lobes can do there job. Am I right?

Its a "door check" and its probably broken.

I pulled it out and just found out what it was called ( Thanks though ). Mine is missing the torsion spring. I'm going to go search in the door to see if it's there.

Thanks

No problema!

Do you know of the cheapest place I can get a new one? I've so far seen $45-$60. Ouch!

I think I'm going to try to fix it. All a I need is pair of left and right 360-degree torsions springs, 2 screws (M5 maybe) and 2 washers to keep them from slipping off the pin, and a vise and hammer to bend one of the arms of each spring. This should cost $5-$10.

I paid $45 for my last one.

You might try some of the Mopar online parts retailers, just Google "mopar parts online" and you will get plenty hits.

Good luck.

when mine broke i got one from the JY, works great. my drivers side door check seized and ripped the pocket in the door apart. so that one swings open freely, i hate it

seems like a common jeep problem, every jeep ive owned (3) has had these things broken on the drivers side door

my door check is broke as is my half door check. gotta be something easy for a fix!!

On my trail rig the fender is smashed enough to hold the door open LOL. On my other XJ I had to replace my whole drivers door because it was rotted and alot of parts were missing off of it when I got the jeep. The one from the JY just so happened to have a door check that works perfectly. I wouldn't be afraid to go to the JY and grab a couple that seem pretty good.

I would personally just buy one at the junkyard, that's what I have done every time so far... however if you want to buy new, the part number is 5523 5571AB. Originally two other part numbers were used for the 84-93 and 94-96 year splits but those parts are obsolete and superceded by the 97-01 part number I listed above.

Or, if you can get to a 'recycling' yard, I believe the right and left are the same, only put in upside-down. For interchangeable parts, always try for the right side. They don't get used anywhere near as often.

That is correct - both sides same, front vs rear are different though. Numbers I posted are for the front.

kastein said:

I would personally just buy one at the junkyard, that's what I have done every time so far... however if you want to buy new, the part number is 5523 5571AB. Originally two other part numbers were used for the 84-93 and 94-96 year splits but those parts are obsolete and superceded by the 97-01 part number I listed above.

Click to expand...

That's what I decide to do in the end. It cost me $13 at a Pick-A-Part junkyard. $3 in gas, $1.25 in tolls, $2 to get in the yard, $1 to get in the late-model part of the yard:bs:, and $7 of the part.

Seems someone can have a nice product line if they could get a bunch of door check springs made. Unless the door pocket is ripped, that's the part that's failing.