Volvo Door Pop Sound – how to fix
MVS Forums member bigdaddylee82 rocks the house with a detailed (many photos) guide to repairing the common Volvo door pop sound, which is caused by a weakened/broken check strap.
“You break your door off?”
After further research I decided to attempt the “drill out spot welds, and bolt in place” repair. I picked up some 6 mm bolts & nylock nuts. This “repair” is a bit of a challenge, the door has to come off, easy enough, drilling out the spot welds isn’t that big of a deal, but getting a nut on the inside of the A pillar through that little plug is darn near impossible without being a contortionist. I read every version of the repair I could find on all of the Volvo forums and attempted all posted tips/tricks and a few of my own.
bigdaddylee82 » I finally fixed my door check problem, again, more on that later, but for now I discovered the answer to my question. Yes, like most of you all said, the door check strap is “universal,” front left works on front right, and vice versa, however after removing my original door check, I understand why FCP might have been reluctant to tell me yes it’ll work. Pictures are worth a thousand words:
First issue, my original check strap was mounted with bolts, but as you can see the new one uses studs. Not a major issue, just required an unexpected trip to the hardware store for some 6mm nuts.Check Strap Comparison
Additionally the new check strap’s spring is significantly larger than the original. This made installation more difficult, the larger spring hinders maneuvering the check strap inside the door, and the larger spring presses against the door wiring harness when installed. I don’t believe the spring pressing against the wiring harness will be an issue, but maybe something worth considering, since the original didn’t touch the harness.Check Strap Comparison 2
After all was said and done I had a new door check strap but, the noise my door made was even worse than before, thanks to my new, non-worn-out check causing even more strain on the actual problem; the door check mount on the A-pillar was broken inside, and the metal around it had began to crack due to the strain.
I knew this was a common problem, but had read others having failed/broken/cracked check straps making similar noise too. When I removed the old check strap and saw this crack, I thought replacing it would solve my problem.Cracked Check Strap
Time to back up and punt. More on that later…
