Hi, a quick question, if I may. I will need to investigate the issue but I thought that there may be a few suggestions as to an answer.

I did a job on the door handle on the passenger side door [RHD]. It was not fully pulling in, even the the handle was only 18 months old, I had replaced all the handles in 2021 because I wanted to get back to OEM black handles. But the nearside handle started sticking a few weeks ago so I took it out today. Everything was OK, still very new, so a liberal dose of copper spray has sorted out that problem, it pulls in proerly now.

The question that I have is that when the window is down, or even partly down, there is a rattle when the door is closed. Not slamming the door, just pushing it closed with enough force for the door to close. I didn't check for anything before refitting the membrane and the door panel as I hadn't moved anything except the disconnecting of the door handle rod so that I could take out the handle.

When the window is fully closed, into the top door frame, then there is no rattle. The window winds both down and back up without any issues. But I am wondering whether this rattle could be the track window seal, that is in a track at the front of the door, having dropped out. The same seal was sitting in the bottom of the door on the drivers side when I replaced the winder mechanism last month.

I know that I will have to do the hard work myself, but I am just wondering whether this is a problem at all, just that the glass can rattle in the door because it is in the lowered position.

Pierre3.

My money is on the window regulator, either the glass "loose" on its plastic (nylon?) bushes, or the entire mechanism to the door (I had this on my rear left door, one of the rivets had become loose). I think when the window is "up" and wedged against the frame, it has nowhere to go and thus does not rattle.

Is a common problem across older cars ... my woman's former car (Micra) has been doing this for a long time (10 years now), the rattling persists, but the mechanism does not break. Lazily, I don't deal with it yet ....

Yes, I had considered the regulator. I know that I need to strip the door down again but the weather outside isn't that conducive to spend a load of time outside, and on top of that I need to have the car in decent condition this week and next because I have visitors whom I need to run around with. So having the door panel off will not be ideal !!

Pierre3.

Another possibility is that the rubber inserts in the window tracks tend to fall out of their tracks, causing the window to rattle.

Harv, that's what happened to the drivers' side door, I had to replace the window regulator, and when I took out the old regulator I found the window seal that should have been in the track, was laying in the bottom of the door.

As I hadn't noticed the glass rattling before I didn't check it so now I will have to check both the reulator and the seal. What I do have, at least, are 6 x 15 mm stainless steel dome-head bolts with nyloc nuts which I used to fit the drivers' side regulator. So when the weather gets a bit warmer I think that I will that I might just drill out the old rivets and replace them, just to be sure that the regulator is held tight.

At least if I bolt the regulator in then it will be easier to fit a new regulator should it ever be needed.

Pierre3.

Hi, so I stripped the door today, and found nothing loose. I drilled out te rivets in the regulator and took it out, and then took off the motor and greased up everything with fresh grease, reassembled and refitted it. The only very small thing that I noticed is a slight flex in the bottom of the regulator plate, where it is fixed to the door, very little movement and it is only where the glass is rolled right up to the top of the travel, into the window frame. The regulator plate isn't moving, it just flexs very marginally under pressure at full travel.

I think that the rattle when the door closes is simply the glass rattling because there is nothing to actually support the top of the glass when it is partly down. I know that it is sitting in a rubber seal, which is correctly located in the track, but it is a big piece of glass and without it being gripped by the window edges then there is room to move. I suspect that there is a bit of room created by the inner door panel after years of being pulled closed with the elbow rest in the door. It looks like that when the car was new the door panel may have been quite a bit tighter against the glass but over the years the gap has expanded very slightly.

As I don't really close the doors with the windows open, except for the odd time when I don't want to be locked out of the car, I am not going to worry about it any more. The doors close perfectly, and both front door handles operate perfectly so perhaps I am looking for an imaginary problem. When I think about it I having a feeling that my Lexus may do the same thing if the windows are open. I must test that !!

The one good thing that was achieved is that the regulator and the motor gear, are all thoroughly greased, including the plastic runners at the bottom of the glass.

Pierre3.

Great then! Live on, and drive on happily!!!

dose it rattle when the window is fully up and fully down when you close it , dose it still rattle if you push on the glass to shut it .

Mad-as, the glass [or the door] rattles when the glass is not longer held in place by the top of the door frame. But I haven't tried pushing the door closed with my hand on the glass. And that's not a bad idea. I did try to get my fingers down between the outside window rubber seal, but I didn't see any discernable difference, and I didn't want to damage the seal either.

I haven't yet tried my other car, which has large front door windows. I must remember to try it soon.

It's a bit of a puzzle, as everything in the door space is firmly fixed. The only thing that I can think of is that the regulator has a very small bit of flexing somewhere, and that replacing it will put in place a stronger unit.

Pierre3.