4 Common Problems With Car Doors And Their Fixes

Who pays that much attention to car doors? After all, you open and shut them all day without any real issue. But once a problem surfaces, most people don’t know what to do about them. 

Fortunately, car door problems aren’t that hard to fix, and you can easily get rid of these annoying issues on your own. Here are some of the most common door dilemmas that car owners face and how to fix them. 

• Sensors That Won’t Stop

If you don’t close the door properly, the dashboard will often give you an alert about the problem. However, most car owners don’t really know what to do once they pull over and check the issue yet the sensor stays on. Most of the time, this is caused by faulty sensors that send wrong signals to the vehicle’s computer. 

Service technicians recommend cleaning or lubricating the door latch mechanisms to fix this common issue. But if the door sensors still continue to give you an alert, it could indicate that they’re damaged and need to be replaced. 

Door sensors giving out warning signals don’t affect your car’s performance when on the road, but it’s a problem that you should never ignore completely. If the vehicle’s computer thinks that you left a door open, it may refuse to lock all of the doors and continue to give you warning signals, which can be annoying. Also, it can drain your car’s battery as the cabin lights stay on as well. 

• Won’t Completely Close

That heavy thud that you hear when you shut the car door inspires confidence that your your doors are completely secure. Also, that loud noise is made possible by the door latch. Now, if the doors won’t completely close, you could be dealing with a stuck or faulty latch. Latches are what you call fasteners that keep car doors closed. They also come with different types and functions such as compression latches. When it comes to compression latches, the level of compression is a guide of protection. What this means is that the more compression between the gasket and the doors, the more tightly they can be sealed. 

If the latch becomes stuck or gets damaged, it can flip and switch to a closed position when you open the door. In turn, when you close the door, you can see that it won’t close because the latch is preventing it from shutting completely. Instead, the door will just bounce off the latch.

It’s not hard to fix this issue though. You can simply use a small screwdriver to reach into the latch and flip it back to its original position. Or you can head to a nearby service center to have it fixed by a professional mechanic and to get a better understanding of how latches work. 

• Key Fob Fails

Key fobs come with transmitters that only work if you’re near your car. Every time you press the button to open the car doors, it sends radio wave signals to the vehicle which allows the doors to open. Like all other electronic devices, key fobs are powered by batteries. Over time, these batteries will be drained of all their power, causing the device to stop functioning. As a result, you can’t open or close the car doors. Many car owners don’t realize this about key fobs and quickly get frustrated and stressed when this problem happens. To avoid such frustrations, bring spare batteries or a backup key with you always. 

Another issue associated with key fobs is misaligned or faulty buttons. You can try opening the key fob yourself if it has any issues or, better yet, you should get a replacement. 

• Door Lock Actuator Doesn’t Work

The door lock actuator is in charge of locking and unlocking the doors. It’s why you can open the car doors by simply pressing a button while sitting in the driver’s seat instead of having to get out and open each door manually. If the actuator doesn’t work, it can cause locking and unlocking issues. 

A broken actuator prevents the locks from working. This could be caused by a blown fuse or faulty wiring which prevents the signals from being sent or delivered correctly to the actuator’s motor. Either way, you should take your car to a professional mechanic to get it fixed. 

Final Thoughts

Car doors are very important, so it’s crucial that you keep them in good shape at all times. The last thing you want is to have problems with your car doors in the middle of the night and leave your car vulnerable to thieves. Be proactive in identifying the early signs of car door problems and bring your vehicle immediately to the shop if you can’t fix them on your own.