Thread: defender door problems

try adjusting your striker where the door latches outwards slightly,(2 bolts) or does your striker still have the peice of plastic tube on it?

Still has the plastic on the striker. Doors are not always difficult to shut. Sometimes depends on weather. Sounds dumb but they are harder to shut when cold. Open windows and they are easier to shut. I used to think it had something to do with the smaller cabin and the door pressuring the air when shutting, hence easier to shut when windows open. Very annoying when driving along and a properly shut door suddenly pops open. Could there be a spring weakness in the door latch?

Do you have a problem opening the door at all?

Also, when you press your thumb to open the door do all buttons have the same action/pressure when depressing the button?

never any trouble opening

it sound like the striker is out of adjustment....or may be too loose and pushed in too far......

try moving it outwards a little and see what happens......keep trying it till its in the right position......

i know what you mean by the doors shutting only sometimes......mine does exactly the same thing......
i need to hold the handle till its actually shut sometimes........other times it just shuts under its own weight......


i havent looked at it yet......

I have just fixed my drivers door yesterday. Mine was complicated because I had a lot of little issues causing the problem.

Sympstoms -
Door not closing randomly, like yours it seemed to be worse on cooler/wetter days.

Door randomly not being able to open... took several attempts.

Possible causes/theory -

I had my door off the problem door and everything looked normal and I couldn't see a problem. So with frustration I removed the passenger side door skin for comparison. It was apparent early that there was some weather damage on the problem door. I also noted there is a sort of water gutter that directs water away from the locking mechanism, which was ascent on the problem door. I removed the complete plastic waterproofing sheet, and found the gutter thing all bent and useless (how the hell it happened I don't know. After examining the operating door the feel of pushing the button was different. On the problem door I then noticed a catch that operates when you press the button releasing properly. It appears the water has stiffened things up in the whole mechanism and that little spring has lost some of its tension and didn't have the guts to pull the latch back, which has the effect of not releasing the door latch. All I did was spray the latch that works with the door handle with a silicon lubricant to get it moving better, than sprayed with a lithium based grease, and now it works finally.

It is possible that this is happening to yours, because when your open the door its releasing the lock enough for you to open but not resetting the lock 100 percent for when you need to close it. Thats what happened to mine.

This will seem pretty hard to understand if you don't have the door skins off. Once you are looking at them you should get what i mean.

I got a quote from a LR place to fix it, and the part (don't quote me on this) was around 130dollars, plus 2hr labour. I think I will need to get new parts put in it eventually. Ill be getting them to do it though. Looks like a bastard of a job.

If its the actual lock mechanism, moving the striker wont fix it.

I bet he doesn't have the torx bits for it.... Stupid f'ing things.

If the lock is full of dust and gunk it will do this. I pulled off the door trim and after a bit of swearing and referencing the RAVE manual I got the whole assembly out. You have to bend the window channel in a cruel fashion to get the lock out but it seemed to all bend back properly on re-assembly.

Mine was full of fine desert sand and grit, so it got a kero bath then hit with the lanolin treatment. Has so far been 1000% better.

I have heard that if the little plastic tube on the striker is missing or has chucks worn away it will also make door closing difficult.

BTW - if you take off the door trim be careful with the buggers that clip it to the steel frame - they break very easily....