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Door Squeak + Click/Clack (Door check arm) Writeup

asymptonic

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Location
Austin, Texas
My first post to NAXJA. I'm an original owner of a '98 XJ Sport, and have loved the girl to death. As she approaches 200k, I've been trying to bring her back to stock. Lots of little things plus a couple big ones (repaint of 2/3rds of her, etc). I've learned a lot and will try to write up a few of these at the end of the night and a few whiskeys.

So as my first give back to this forum which has given me a lot of ideas, my journey to a squeak free front door. Nothing new to the forums really, but I hope this puts a lot in one place.

First, tldr: It was the door check. Not any one part, but the whole part. Based on my experience, here's the order to approach diagnosing this.

1) General lube. Try Silicone spray on the door check arm, especially around the pin and the *side* of the check arm. After removing and regreasing the entire thing, I can tell you the wide part contacts nothing. Its the thin section that rolls through rollers and springs in the mechanism inside the door that has the most potential to squeak. If the silicone spray lubes the rotating pin or the arm as it moves through the rest of the mechansim, you're good... for a while.

2) The pin hole: This was the end for me actually. I actually wound up removing the entire check-arm assembly and cleaning it up with throttle-boddy cleaner and regreasing it, reassembling it. That helped with squeaking but didn't stop the click/clack as the door opened and closed. In the end, it was the fact that the bracket the pin inserts into gets widened out over time and the pin spins in a sort of orbit around the bracket that causes clacking. Order a replacement bracket and pin to solve this. Part #55002361 is the bracket. Tip for installation: You can put the pin in upside down, which makes hammering it in a little easier if your door isn't perfectly aligned. If it isn't, its a little hard to get the check arm aligned with both holes on the bracket, and the door open sensor gets in the way of your hammer. If you're careful, you can get the pin wedged into the bracket and check arm from the bottom, hold it with a finger, and hammer it UP through the bracket rather than down as it was OEM.

3) The check arm mechanism itself. This guy is bolted into the door itself. Easy enough to remove the bolts from the outside. Then you'll have to fish it out through the interior of the door, around the wiring, past the window channel and out your speaker hole. I recommend removing the wiring boot from the door to get a couple more fingers into the door to guide it along. When you remove it, you'll find it gummed up with old dirty grease. If its old enough and you're a beast with the door, a couple of the pins that run through it may be bent. That's when you need to replace it. Most likely though its in good shape and your problem is elsewhere. Clean it up, and grease it with multipurpose grease, especially the rollers that contact the check arm itself, then reinstall.

4) The door hinges: Maybe the problem, I don't know! In my case the hinges were never a problem. I'd hit them with sprays a couple of times thinking they were the problem, but after solving the check arm it was clear they were never the issue. They may be after solving everything else.

Grease notes: I've seen lots of recommendations on grease for this area. I've tried 3in1 oil: Ok, but doesn't penetrate, doesn't last long. Lithium grease. Seemed okay but lasted a very short time before drying out. Silicone spray: Penetrates well, solves easy problems quickly, but only lasted half a year or so, mostly because the problem was elsewhere. MP grease: Harder to apply, basically useless if you don't get the mechanisms inside the door which require removing the mechanism. But absolutely solved squeaks once you do. I was left with the click/clack due to wallered out check pin bracket.

Sorry for the long winded post, but after 18 years I have a door that sounds like the day I bought her, and it goes a long way to feeling like I have her back instead of having a beater.

Cheers,
asy
 
May have to look into this, my check arm didn't have the pin in it when I got it, it had a bolt that just chills out in there. I need to redo my lower hinge pin though. Wish there was a good way to take the doors off and keep em lined up when they go on (1999 2 door)
 
Try using gear lube on the door check, works the best.
 
I don't think its a complicated area to lube. Just use a lube that lasts a while. Silicone spray worked great but not for very long. Lithium grease worked but for a very short time and made a dry mess when it stopped.

The key is that the pop/click noise is not due to lubrication, its the pin failing or the hole the pin fits through being worn wider than the pin is supposed to be. I'd read posts about widening out the pin to fit better but that didn't work for me. Made it worse in fact. Replacing the bracket was a cheap and easy fix. And you can find the pins in a 4 pack for pretty cheap. If the click/pop is your problem, replacing the bracket and pin is the answer.

The squeaking for me was inside the door check mechanism, living inside the door itself. You can try lubing the arm which is visible but that never worked long term for me.

Remove the bracket, which isn't terribly easy but not the end of the world, and you can get at the rollers in the door check with your preferred grease, and then you're home free if the squeak is the problem.
 
More part numbers for y'all.

Door pins: Doorman 38434, pack of 4 for ~7-8$ (Replace this first, if it fails you have 3 more pins to try on later fixes)
Door check arm bracket: 55002361 (Probably the issue, but try the pin first)
Door check arm: 55235571AB (Replace this last! Try lubing it first, probably all it needs)

These part numbers are for my '98 but probably apply to a lot of years.
 
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