Check your doors for alignment. Quality Control

[Rototerrier]

You do realize my statement you quoted is factual? Not sure what your goal is in quoting me. If it was to get on my ignore list, mission accomplished.

 

[cevans6318]

You do realize my statement you quoted is factual? Not sure what your goal is in quoting me. If it was to get on my ignore list, mission accomplished.

you can agree or disagree with my statement or ignore me, I don't care. We all have opinions and I respect yours, just giving you my opinion on your statement.

 

[gwatt86]

Ok fellas, I finally decided to tackle this issue myself. It is SUPER easy.

You need a T45 star bit. I bought a set from Harbor Freight for 24 bucks. Then you need an impact wrench. I am using a 18v Ridgid from Home Depot, but any impact will do. You just need something that will easily break the bolts loose.

I was originally thinking this "whacking" of the latch was to bend something. Not at all. I took the latch completely off just so I could see what the bolts screw in to. Turns out, the nuts on the inside of the body are affixed in such a way that they float. With the bolts about 3/4 of the way turned in, or 1/4 of the way out...both bolts, I put a piece of wood up against them and gave them a light tap. I could then see those backer nuts move a little. I continued to tap them until I got them moved a few mm more inward toward the cab. Lots of folks are suggesting the dealer is "whacking" the latch. You could do this, but then you can't really see the backer nuts move and you are just guessing at how far things are shifting. You could just loosen the bolts and take a few whacks on the latch, but you can't really tell if it's moving. By removing the latch first and then just tapping the bolts, you can clearly and visibly see just how far those nuts are moving inward and not over/under do it.

Pulled out the bolts, reinstall the latch, tightened it all back down and the door now closes tighter and farther into the cab and removed all of the misalignment.

So, for those of you that aren't completely dependent on dealers to fix everything and have some tools laying around to do the job, this is a simple 5 minute fix you can do yourself. Nothing is getting bent and nothing is getting excessively whacked with a hammer. I literally just barely tapped and things shifted right to where they needed to be. For everyone else that likes to argue that they shouldn't have to work on their own vehicles out of principle or spite or whatever....then you guys can just keep waiting on your dealers and/or live with the misalignments. I prefer to take the bull by the horns and just knock these little things out.

I can only attest to this fixing my particular issue where my drivers side rear door was sticking out at the bottom. Obviously having the door shut further into the cab is a logical and obvious solution. Any other misalignments may not be resolved with this method and your mileage may vary.

So how hard am I hitting the bolts? I took the latch off and reinstalled the bolts so they are sticking out just a bit but I don’t think it’s moving too much. I might just be scared of hitting them too hard.

 

[JoeCo]

You do realize they are on countless ram forums and probably get thousands of messages a day from people whining, crying and complaining. They can't help and please everyone. And as I told someone else, most of the complaints they get from people are most likely out of warranty and want a fix for free.

Have heard of more than enough stories of people well within warranty that they don't do **** for either.

To be fair I've heard a few people they seemed to have helped, but overall I agree that they are mostly just there to do what the other poster said. My experience with them as well, personally and in warranty. Rambot doesn't care.

 

[SkittleRam]

Ok fellas, I finally decided to tackle this issue myself. It is SUPER easy.

You need a T45 star bit. I bought a set from Harbor Freight for 24 bucks. Then you need an impact wrench. I am using a 18v Ridgid from Home Depot, but any impact will do. You just need something that will easily break the bolts loose.

I was originally thinking this "whacking" of the latch was to bend something. Not at all. I took the latch completely off just so I could see what the bolts screw in to. Turns out, the nuts on the inside of the body are affixed in such a way that they float. With the bolts about 3/4 of the way turned in, or 1/4 of the way out...both bolts, I put a piece of wood up against them and gave them a light tap. I could then see those backer nuts move a little. I continued to tap them until I got them moved a few mm more inward toward the cab. Lots of folks are suggesting the dealer is "whacking" the latch. You could do this, but then you can't really see the backer nuts move and you are just guessing at how far things are shifting. You could just loosen the bolts and take a few whacks on the latch, but you can't really tell if it's moving. By removing the latch first and then just tapping the bolts, you can clearly and visibly see just how far those nuts are moving inward and not over/under do it.

Pulled out the bolts, reinstall the latch, tightened it all back down and the door now closes tighter and farther into the cab and removed all of the misalignment.

So, for those of you that aren't completely dependent on dealers to fix everything and have some tools laying around to do the job, this is a simple 5 minute fix you can do yourself. Nothing is getting bent and nothing is getting excessively whacked with a hammer. I literally just barely tapped and things shifted right to where they needed to be. For everyone else that likes to argue that they shouldn't have to work on their own vehicles out of principle or spite or whatever....then you guys can just keep waiting on your dealers and/or live with the misalignments. I prefer to take the bull by the horns and just knock these little things out.

I can only attest to this fixing my particular issue where my drivers side rear door was sticking out at the bottom. Obviously having the door shut further into the cab is a logical and obvious solution. Any other misalignments may not be resolved with this method and your mileage may vary.

I am going to try this with my Drivers Door. Thanks for the write-up

 

[Rototerrier]

So how hard am I hitting the bolts? I took the latch off and reinstalled the bolts so they are sticking out just a bit but I don’t think it’s moving too much. I might just be scared of hitting them too hard.

Hard enough to get some movement. I suspect any resistance you are encountering might be dried paint or something else causing a little bonding. I wouldn't go nuts on it, but a healthy whack won't hurt anything. If you move it too far, you can just whack it back the other way. It's all pretty sturdy material so I don't think you can hurt anything unless you go full gorilla on it.

 

[gwatt86]

Hard enough to get some movement. I suspect any resistance you are encountering might be dried paint or something else causing a little bonding. I wouldn't go nuts on it, but a healthy whack won't hurt anything. If you move it too far, you can just whack it back the other way. It's all pretty sturdy material so I don't think you can hurt anything unless you go full gorilla on it.

Ok, thanks! I'll give it another go. I appreciate you posting your steps, very helpful.

 

[RSZ]

Just fixed my driver's side rear door. Loosened up the bolts but didn't take them out. Took a piece of 1x2, rested against the edge of the latch and gave it a couple good wacks. Tightened up the bolts. Now the door closes completely but makes a clicking sound when opening. Loosened bolts again and with a claw hammer pulled the latch back out a little bit. Tightened up the bolts, and now the door closes and opens as it should and it sits flush. Thanks to @Rototerrier for the writeup.