Fixed 02 Defender Doors

[land864]

Hey

I think I've fixed those pesky 02 Defender front doors that don't close properly:D

Had a think about why they would be worse when cold and after reading that the locks are lubricated for life , had a look at the grease.

Can understand why "Lubed for life" , the stuff is as thick as thick:eek:

When mixed with any dust or other material it just looks horrible.

The cold would make it even thicker again.

So , got a thin knife blade and removed as much as I could see , even pushed up the lock mech and cleaned in there.

Then hit it with a heavy duty degreaser , had another wipe with the blade , even down the sides of the lock mech and hit it with degreaser again.
Wiped ouit as much as I could with a cloth and blade and screwdriver.

Let all that dry out and then pumped em full of graphite powder.

Seems to have down the trick. Passenger now holds on first pull:D

I may have made a maintenance item for myself but geez at least now they work :D

Another tip i'll try is Mr Sheen or furniture polish with silicone in it.

That can also work as a carrier to get your graphite powder right in the workings.

Good luck Defender dodgy door owners.

PS Someone also told me to adjust the striker plate by testing with removing and moving the shims and adjusting them outwards. I think the problem there is any minimal dust seal you may have had is compromised :confused:

[lardy]

Land that was an interesting read... Graphite powder so are you in effect leaving the lock dry and utilising the graphite as a lubricant ?
what effects/benefits would you get from looking at lighter greases/lubes such as copper grease (not enough body is my guess) over the lubed for life stuff the factory applies, have you looked at tradional lubes prior to trying out the powder ?

[land864]

Hi Lardy.
I'll be honest , I did not try any other lubes.
I was keen to get them working well asap.
Must admit , that I didn't put as much graphite powder in the drivers door and that did not work as well as the passsenger door one I did pump full of graphite.
Have since gone back today and put more graphite in the drivers and Mr Sheen.
Seems to have done the job.
Will know tomorrow morning when it's cold.
Both the graphite and the Mr Sheen tips were given to me by an older locksmith.

[PBob]

Another good fix for the cold doors would be to leave Melbourne!:Rolling:

[land864]

But then we would have to eat crap food , drink crap coffee and miss out on all this culture :p

[lardy]

But then we would have to eat crap food , drink crap coffee and miss out on all this culture :p

I am with ya on that ...why do I live in Perth again?:D
forgot to add that flat whites mainly come in the saucer in Perth I think its a regional slant on service

[Don 130]

Try some PTFE spray lube in your locks instead of graphite. It has one of the lowest friction coefficients of any known solid. (Trade name 'Teflon') It's also good on anything needing lube without the sticking properties of grease or oil. Don.

[5teve]

well as i posted a 'fix' a while ago.. and land864 took it a bit further.. :D

i followed suit today and did a bit of analysis while doing it.

i have only done the drivers side front and rear (what an interesting job the front doors are. glass out, glass channels nearly out.) Basically i took the locks out, fully degreased them with heavy duty stuff and then had to scrape the grease off that had turned to glue type stuff also. I then hosed them out (it was that spray off engine degreaser) made sure they were clean and then hosed them out with rp7. fitted everything back in and found the rattle in the drivers door (all the bolts were loose on the inner panel, hooray i now have a quiet door) adjusted all the lock rods etc put it all back together and it worked lovely.. until i finished up and the remote locking wouldnt work. it locked then unlocked itself and then sounded the alarm. stripped the trip back off and adjusted the central locking rod.. all was good.

Did the same to the back door, but much easier job there. analysed the problem that is as follows.

As the latch pin enters the latch it rolls the latch mechanism round to the 1st locking point then the second. the catch at the top of the locking pin entry that locks each stage moved very very slowly as it was gummed up. so it was possible first thing in the morning for the door to be shut and bounce back fully open before that catch had reacted. all cleaned and lubed it works well. The grease they use must be good for pommy conditions but must harden over here with age.

just got to do the passenger side now. will let you know how it goes.

Worth doing as genuine latches are $200+ each, all for the sake of some crap grease!

Steve

And the result is.... IT WORKS! hooray... cold morning and no issues. Only problem now is that Rach cant shut her door first time so i have to do that as soon as!

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I'm going to give this a go I think! :) Will report back.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I'm going to give this a go I think! :) Will report back.

Ok... Did this on the weekend. Removed... Degreased, dried, filled with ptfe bicycle chain lube and put back in.

It's a little early to tell but I'm going to call it fixed! It was 11 this morning and the door was opening and closing just as it was in the warmth of the afternoon.

Its going to get down to 7 sunday so I'll be sure to leave the car out that night. If it passes that I'll be stoked.

Still.. I'm not to keen about the removal process to re-lube so I'll be interested to see how long it all lasts.

A replacement latch assembly was quoted at $140 for reference.

[ad91on]

I did the door striker thing, it worked for a little bit on the passenger door but seems to have returned to 'normal' now (i.e if the door isn't locked when driving it may well fly open while moving!) Nontheless it is better than before.

I can say without a doubt that taking the trim off and just caking the mechanism in lube doesn't do anything (i didn't remove any of the old grease crap just sprayed over it).

Moving the strikers in helped me with all the other doors just not the passenger one.

Will eventually get around to taking off all the old lube crap and making it a maintenance item!