How do you know if you need to adjust the striker or the door hinges themselves?

Most of my doors are fine, especially passenger side, but my drivers door sags a tiny bit as soon as the latch unhooks. When you close the door you can feel that it meets resistance when it is closing. It’s slight but annoying because once and a while it won’t close the first time. (I don’t like to slam doors.)

I’ve searched and browsed a lot of threads but there doesn’t seem to be a good answer to hinge vs latch.

My gut says the striker is the easy fix but I feel like the door might need to be pulled up? From the outside things look fine and I don’t really wanna make the problem worse. I just want a smooth latching without resistance.

I’d like to try removing the slop to see if it will also help with some of the vibrations I’ve been having in my driver mirror. Closing the door will make the entire mirror housing and the mirror glass shake like crazy so I’m wondering if it’s all related now.

 

You need to find out why the door drops when it is no longer supported by the striker. open the door just a bit and pull straight up on the door to see if it has any movement in the hinges. Most likely if there is movement, it's the pin bushings. Those should made of brass and are sacrificial so that the hinge itself isn't worn.

 

Gotcha. I should note it is a 2020 w/ about 7,000 miles on it.

I tightened the door hinge bolts recently because I read a thread that mentioned they can be loose. Mine turned about 1/4 turn before torquing to 35 ft/lbs. Perhaps the hinge shifted prior to me tightening it, and now it just needs to be wiggled back a bit to compensate? The striker is just about perfectly in the middle of the V groove in the door latch until I can no longer see it once the door is just about closed.

I do notice that on the leading edge of my driver door, the gap between the door and the fender is slightly smaller at the bottom than the top. Perhaps this is pointing to: pull the door up, so the lower edge is further from the front and the top right corner is closer to the top of the cab.

 

AHHHH, yes, I'd bet the door shifted. With the truck being that new, I'd just take it to the dealer to have them align it while it's under warranty. I was going under the assumption that it was a bit older with a lot of use on the door.

 

What he said.

 

I am traumatized by the dealer. I will not go there unless it is to have an expensive part replaced or legit warranty work performed. Every dealer in my life has caused some form of irreversible damage to my vehicles when they have gone in for service or have made the problem worse.

 

Ok, Well if you want to tackle it yourself, loosen up the bolt you tightened and pull the door up just a bit and tighten it back down and slowly close the door so that you don't do any damage. Or if you don't feel you can get it right, take it to a body shop. They have more experience in panel alignment anyway.