Guide for Curing Door Rattles.

[87gtVIC]

Common problems are shaking doors while going down roads, shaking glass, rattling from worn out guide pins and weatherstripping.

Door Strikers-These help keep the door tight up against the body weatherstripping preventing the door from flexing much if at all while driving. They are easy to replace with units from a mustang of similar age. Replacing these will definitely help your entire door from jumping around. The new bushing gives the latch mechanism something nice to bit into and secure everything.

Window guide rod bushing-These are the little plastic pieces that the regulator mechanism ride up against. If these are worn out or not even present your window will shake and go up and down in an uncommon manner. Again replace with pieces from fox body mustang. My car took two per window. Discussion thread: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=32138

Dew Wipe Weatherstripping-This piece of commonly cracked rubber helps keep water out of the inside of your door as well as keep good pressure against the glass securing it in place whether it is open, closed or in between. It helps stabilize the glass preventing it from clanking around. The common replacement item is purchsed from JcWhitney. http://www.jcwhitney.com/inner-and-o...17&filterid=j1 Discussion thread:http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=29894

Window Channel Weatherstripping-Again this piece helps stop rattles. Your window rides up and down these channels that run around the entire frame of the door. By now they are very old and have no flex left to them allowing the window to just go crazy when in any other position other than fully up. The common replacement piece if found in Metro Molded Catalogs. The product number is WC 33-96. Discussion thread: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=27305

Please go ahead and ask any questions you may have.

[83countrysquire]

have you done the window guides yet?

[87gtVIC]

yes.

[Piece-it pete]

Any idea if the mustang bushings'll work in my 85 TC front door? I know that wierd scissor regulator is clanking around.

Pete

[87gtVIC]

I have not been inside Town Car doors so I cannot answer your question. I dont recall if Gadget73 replaced his or not..Might be something to ask him about.

Also I should mention that most of the above (posts) are directed towards Crown Victoria's and Grand Marquis' as that is all of the experience I have with.

[Piece-it pete]

No worries mate

Out of the 4 it's probably the only thing different.

Pete

[Brown_Muscle]

excellent!

May i also ad that another common rattle (at least is was with mine!) is the inner door handle being loose, remove the arm rest and tighten up the handle bolt.

[gadget73]

you know, I want to say there is no guide rod bushing on a Towncar, least I can't say I've noticed one in any of the many times I've had that door apart. It seems to me there should be since there is a rod in there but be damned if I can visualize how it sits together. There are several adjustable guide runs though, if any of those are loose things rattle badly. There is also a plastic block thing that sits in the channel under the glass and acts as an insulator between the glass and the ball stud on the scissor arm. If thats worn out, things will not be smooth.

[chitownvic]

Sweet, now I know why my back door is rattling

[87gtVIC]

I noticed the most common cause for rattling is the door striker bushing being worn out. A quick way to diagnose this is by wrapping electrical tape around the suspect door's striker and going for a drive. If the rattling stopped you have found your problem. Just a matter of replacing it with a new one.

[Piece-it pete]

My rattle appears to be coming from the junction of all those scissor arms right near the wing window.

If I ever! sort out my ride/vacuum problems and get to the rattles I'll report back.

Pete

[trwp72]

My only rattle in my door was the door lock rod... at the connection with the door lock.. i put some grease on it.. no more rattle!

[87gtVIC]

Glad you mentioned that. The plastic bushings they push into get very fragile and worn out with age.

[rick99601]

my exterior door handle rattles and it drives me crazy. i guess ill have to drill out the rivots and replace them with some nuts and bolts.

[87gtVIC]

You mean the handle is loose from the body? Or is the spring broke?

I used stainless Phillips headed nuts and nylocks to secure my door handles.