have to slam door to close

[5chema]

Hahaha when I got my first JK it was so annoying having to slam the door. I had read on the wrangler forums about the air pressure and it did close easier when the top was off. The JT is better although there are times where I forget and casually try to close it and it doesn't and have to push it harder. And about every time I have a passenger I have to tell them to open and shut the door again.

When the kids were younger and we had our first JK, it was funny to see how hard they closed the doors of friends and relatives cars! I remember parents of theirs friends joking about their strength when they were slamming the door of their cars, especially our younger daughter!

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[Sean0170]

I have the same problem with my passenger side door. I think its an alignment issue. Just waiting till I have time to take it in and have it fixed. Probably could fix it but I hate screwing with the hinges.

 

[rafaelsmith]

Sounds normal to me....both my TJ and JK doors required a little more "motivation" to close

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I have the same problem with my passenger side door. I think its an alignment issue. Just waiting till I have time to take it in and have it fixed. Probably could fix it but I hate screwing with the hinges.

If like mine, the sound is different. It's an alignment issue in my case. Otherwise it would take the same slam effort for all 4 doors and they'd all sound the same latching. The rear doors in mine actually are the most easy to close and latch. I don't need to slam them - a force like any other door takes care of it.
Sometimes the "it's a Jeep thing" is taken too far and has grown legs of its own.

On the same topic - has anyone seen how doors were often fine-tuned in a factory? Large rubber mallet, 3 or 4 foot 2x4.
Hood, trunk lid and door tweaks were seen to by a rather large fellow who carried those two tools.
I witnessed it myself in a Ford plant years ago. Wasn't too much different in the Chrysler plant I was in. They were gotten really close the way you'd expect, but anything that wasn't just right was "adjusted" wrenchlessly.

Modern techniques are very different. Robotics and the equipment used to assemble has changed so many things and made fit issues fewer - but they still exist.
There are still deviations - parts that still meet specs but are barely in spec that can cause things not to align perfectly as assembled. Stack-up of tolerances.
I know a fellow who has won awards from Barrett Jackson for his body work and panel alignment. And sometimes doors are literally twisted and flexed to get the fitment. I've seen trunk lids and hoods twisted and manipulated. It's not always about bolts and screws.
I've had two vehicles with doors and window frames that were way off from the factory. In one case the door was bowed out enough at the bottom I could see light up between the bottom of the door and the rocker/sill area. In another when the right door was closed you could slip a dollar bill between the door opening and the window frame - cold air came in, the door gasket didn't touch when the door was closed properly.

 

[gjeepguy]

In my JK I would always wait and close my door last whenever I had a passenger. That way it was easier for them to closer their door normally since I relieved the pressure by opening my door. Then I would close my door.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

In my JK I would always wait and close my door last whenever I had a passenger. That way it was easier for them to closer their door normally since I relieved the pressure by opening my door. Then I would close my door.

Now that's a smart and simple solution.
I have done that with my little Eagle where I got it sealed so well it had a problem now and then latching the doors.
I'd wait for my wife to get in and closer her door then close mine - or I'd bump the window down a quarter inch.
Finally have it tweaked, but the simple solution is yours.

 

[jurfie]

In my JK I would always wait and close my door last whenever I had a passenger. That way it was easier for them to closer their door normally since I relieved the pressure by opening my door. Then I would close my door.

Ditto. My wife and I both do that, which makes a bit of a standoff when we are together...both of us stand there waiting for the other to close their door first. Then get fed up and try to close them at the same time.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Ditto. My wife and I both do that, which makes a bit of a standoff when we are together...both of us stand there waiting for the other to close their door first. Then get fed up and try to close them at the same time.

Rule - she closes first on odd numbered dates, you close first on even numbered dates unless it's a blue moon on a Tuesday in November then you reverse.

 

[BLK HOLE]

Both my Jeeps do that (JK is worse tho). Air tight doors. Its worse with a hard top than a soft top and doesn't do it with the top down/off.

 

[ndn384]

I had the same issue with the passenger front door. My with would have to shut it twice just about every time. I thought it was just her, but when I took it to the dealership for a water leak, I mentioned it. They adjusted the door and it solved the issue. It just needed to be adjusted. Now the door closes without any issues.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I had the same issue with the passenger front door. My with would have to shut it twice just about every time. I thought it was just her, but when I took it to the dealership for a water leak, I mentioned it. They adjusted the door and it solved the issue. It just needed to be adjusted. Now the door closes without any issues.

Yup - and mine will likely be solved by adjustment, too.
It's a different sound. I've done body work and restored/repaired cars for decades and one can tell .
In the case of my JT, the right front SOUNDS different if you pay attention at all.
And - it's the ONLY door that does that - both rear and the driver door latch perfectly EVERY time, no exception. That's also telling.
AND, it happens when I close it, too - so it's not just my wife. When I was in Omaha earlier this week, my friend who I got the signs from rode with me to go get them from his storage unit - he also didn't get it closed the first time.

If the latch is set up properly, because the air being compressed in the cab is like a spring, not a constant force against you - if the latch catches correctly and things are adjusted, it should STILL latch and stay.
Ask anyone with an air-tight BMW or Mercedes or for that matter, almost any other vehicle that seals well.
It's an excuse to accept something in some cases.
Too often "it's a Jeep thing" is used to explain away things - to give up, to make it easy.
If it WAS a Jeep thing, ANY door, left, right, front, rear, they'd all do it and many more would see it.
You are proof that don't have to be that way - adjustment is worth trying - but be careful, not everyone knows HOW to correctly adjust doors. It's an art as much as science. I've gotten vehicles back from shops where the doors didn't latch right - and taken them to someone else, or did the job myself, and corrected the issue.

 

[jurfie]

Ask anyone with an air-tight BMW or Mercedes or for that matter, almost any other vehicle that seals well.

I'm not arguing with you as your JT door may indeed need realignment, but your comment above is not true.

In my Audi, the window on the door that is being closed drops slightly when you open it and then goes up after the door is closed, thus releasing the air pressure as the door is shut. I've never paid attention when in a BMW or Mercedes, but I'd imagine it is the same.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'm not arguing with you as your JT door may indeed need realignment, but your comment above is not true.

In my Audi, the window on the door that is being closed drops slightly when you open it and then goes up after the door is closed, thus releasing the air pressure as the door is shut. I've never paid attention when in a BMW or Mercedes, but I'd imagine it is the same.

Not my neighbor's BMW.
Nor the Mercedes my friend who is a Mercedes tech drove 4 or 5 years ago. He did show off some of the other technology in the car, but when the windows were up, they were up. The doors shut nice with a very distinct sound. We rode around quite a bit in his car - even took it down the track a couple of times. He drives leased cars as one of his perks - and he loved hiding the time slips all over inside the car so that later owners or others would find them and wonder what they had gotten.......

It could be size of the area matters to - smaller cars are trapping the air in a smaller area - fewer cubic feet of space to accept the air so it's compressed faster and to a higher degree than compressing the air in a larger cabin area. Compare the cubic feet of space in the vehicles.
Larger cabin the air pressure won't rise as fast or as much as the door is closed quickly. Smaller cabin there's less space in which to compress the air so the pressure rises more quickly and higher.

 

[deanmc]

The doors on my JT close so much easier than they did on my JKU. Wrangler doors had to be slammed, these Gladiator doors you can push closed with an index finger.

 

[uplandgunner]

I have to yell at my wife NOT to slam doors in the house, and TO slam doors in the JT

My wife slams everything! House doors, cabinet doors, drawers etc. yanks hard on the window visors and generally has a rough touch on anything. I just grit my teeth and keep mum because the battle is not worth it till she breaks something

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