Cleaning door latch, has anyone done it?

[dorvin]

Hi All,

I'm looking to potentially take apart the latch on my driver side door to improve it's latching ability. Over the past few months, my driver side door has been getting harder and harder to close tightly on the first try, it's becoming fairly common to have it only partially latch, requiring me to open and close the door again once I'm in the car. I assume it's dirt and grime that has built up in the latch, likely do to the amount of gravel I travel on a regular basis. Please see the following picture for a visual.



Has anyone tried to clean this area of the door with any success? I'm wondering how far I would have to full apart the door in order to effectively clean and grease it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[pkc303]

I've taken mine apart several times, not to clean, but that is a great idea. About to take it apart again for another reason. Your picture shows quite a bit of dirt, you may want to check your seals on that door.

As far a cleaning it, you can get it from the outside. Opening the inside would allow you to grease more of the mechanisms, but not much on the latching mechanism. I'll post a picture and show you.

[rspi]

Did you try spraying it down real good with some lubrication?

[pkc303]

Here are some pics of the inside, you can see the mechanism, but most of it is covered by a plastic box. Hope this helps.

[ThommyKent]

Just spray what you can see with something better than WD40 before taking the panel off

[erikv11]

I don't understand why so people are suggesting to soak or spray it with lubricant right off. That seems like exactly the wrong thing to do here, you will just wash excessive dirt into the latch and into the cavity behind the door panel

I would first get soapy/damp paper towels or similar, e.g. use a little simple green cleaner, and wipe off all of the visible dirt. Get everything you can from outside, around, and in the latch. Clean it up real well.

Then, you will want to lubricate the latch, including to flush out what little dirt remains. You can do this to a limited extent with the latch in place, probably can get it done well enough that way. or, if you want to be super meticulous then remove the door panel and remove the latch mechanism from the door, once you have it on the bench you can finish cleaning it up then lubricate it. I see no real good reason to remove the door panel unless you are also going to remove the latch, but who knows it could prove useful for cleaning the latch while still mounted in place.

[dorvin]

Thank you all for the replies, and the excellent pictures pkc303.

I've taken mine apart several times, not to clean, but that is a great idea. About to take it apart again for another reason. Your picture shows quite a bit of dirt, you may want to check your seals on that door.

The funny thing is, the previous owner of the car had all the door seals replaced from the Volvo dealer about 30,000 miles ago, shortly before I purchased the car, after complaining of "wind noise at 70mph." I'll double check the seals around the door, but I can almost hear a mouse fart inside the cabin while going down the road.

Did you try spraying it down real good with some lubrication?

I would rspi, but like someone else said, I worry about any extra lubrication in there just collecting more dirt. I have a can of Boeshield T-9 lubricant that I'll likely spray in there. I think I'll just try to get it as clean as possible with whatever cleaner, and a air hose and spray some of that in there and see how it helps, unless anyone has any objections to that.

[benpineapple]

It could also be an issue with the door catch on the b-pillar. I had an issue with my tailgate only partially latching; I wrapped the contact part of the catch with a decent amount of electrical tape, and et voila! It now latches as it should (and is a great deal quiter than before). Just another solution that might save you from peeling apart the entire door.

[ThommyKent]

I don't understand why so people are suggesting to soak or spray it with lubricant right off. That seems like exactly the wrong thing to do here, you will just wash excessive dirt into the latch and into the cavity behind the door panel

Because it`s easier and it`s just a door latch. It more than likely will wash dirt out of the latch and no one cares about the door cavity. But the way you want to do it is certainly more thorough. Go for it.

[rspi]

New door seals may be part of the issue, especially if the new seals are a little larger.