slamming doors on my 240D - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

fooss0le · #1 06-20-2006, 02:54 PM

I have to really slam all four doors on my 79 240D to get them to latch. There is a male on the door and a female on the door jam. Just below the female is a little insert that is badly worn. This insert is what trips the latching mechanism. MB does not sell the insert separately but as part of a $76 unit. I am not inclined to sink $304 + 6% tax on closing my doors. Does anybody know if these inserts are available somewhere or should I fashion something myself? Anybody out there ever do this?

TX76513 · #2 06-20-2006, 03:25 PM

E-mail Phil here on the forum (Fastlane). He has some great resources.

leathermang · #3 06-20-2006, 04:23 PM

I thought that is why we buy parts cars and have them sitting around... LOL
If you do get them from a parts car you can see the pictures I posted about doing this in the archives.... usually you can't get some of the allen head screws out which hold them on.... if you pick the correct drill you can drill them out without it doing any harm to anything....

winmutt · #4 06-20-2006, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leathermang

I thought that is why we buy parts cars and have them sitting around... LOL
If you do get them from a parts car you can see the pictures I posted about doing this in the archives.... usually you can't get some of the allen head screws out which hold them on.... if you pick the correct drill you can drill them out without it doing any harm to anything....

Hammer, WD40, allen socket (not the wrnch thingies). Works every time.

300SDog · #5 06-20-2006, 04:59 PM

Same thing happened to me with one door on my '79. I replaced the entire female striker plate with junk yard part, 5mm allen socket you need to do the job. The old ones have white nylon inserts, later MB went to black nylon - dont know why. But I doubt the nylon bits are even removable from the female striker plates. You can have the entire set of female door clasps that appear to be working fine from my parts car..... How does $45 for the complete set of 4 that includes shipping and handling sound?

leathermang · #6 06-20-2006, 05:31 PM

Yeah Right... the next time an internal head bolt is rounded off when I encounter it and it needs to be gotten off I will call you guys.... otherwise I will get the drill out and do the job.

Fuzzball · #7 06-20-2006, 06:50 PM

Once you buy a replacement, get the old one off and put the new one in place, make sure that you don't tighten the screws all the way, cause you need to align the two halves.

I had a devil of a time getting my passenger front door aligned, but now that it finally is, door latches great.

Matt L · #8 06-20-2006, 07:09 PM

This is probably completely unrelated, but perhaps not.

I had this problem with a 1983 SD. The black insert was warn where it hit the latch in the door. This insert is in the catch, attached to the pillar.

It hit on one side (top or bottom, I don't remember), and all the doors showed this pattern. I took the catch off of the driver door and off of the rear passenger-side door, dismantled them and swapped the inserts. Now the worn areas aren't hit by the latches, and both doors work great.

The door catches were different across the car (left and right), but the rubber inserts were identical, other than the wear pattern.

t walgamuth · #9 06-20-2006, 08:05 PM

i have a hammer "air hammer". manual thingie with a socket drive on one end and a handle to hold while you strike it and it twists. the allen screws that hold the door latch in are about impossible to get out without one.

good uck

tom w

leathermang · #10 06-20-2006, 08:12 PM

That ' impact driver ' is one of the great tools of all time... motorcycle mechanics could not live without it because it will loosen a phillips head bolt which nothing else will... because it puts forward pressure on at the same time as turning force..
HOWEVER, if the inside of the allen head bolt is rounded out the only thing I know to do is drill ....

Stevo · #11 06-20-2006, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

i have a hammer "air hammer". manual thingie with a socket drive on one end and a handle to hold while you strike it and it twists. the allen screws that hold the door latch in are about impossible to get out without one.

good uck

tom w

Yah, I have one of those impact drivers . I use it to remove the Philips hd bolts holding the W123 seat rails, works like a charm there. Mine is a Hbr freight "cheepie", might be worth getting a good one.

t walgamuth · #12 06-21-2006, 06:11 AM

by the way... those old style mb door latches are found on avantis and certain models of ferrari too.

nothing but the best for them.

tom w

symbolic95 · #13 06-28-2006, 05:50 PM

3 days ago got mine for FREE at the junk yard the guy just didnt charge me
after i showed them to him , and yes you ll have to use a magic "hammer and twist" tool , wrench wont help.
goodluck

pjc · #14 06-28-2006, 06:09 PM

Before going to the effort of replacing the striker, double check your door alignment. I had the hard-slam problem on the driver's door of my '82 300SD; adjusting it to close about 1 mm higher solved the problem (even with the worn nylon insert like you describe).

Renntag · #15 04-04-2012, 09:09 PM

I had this same door slamming issue and replaced 2 of the strikers on my W123. The doors shut better but still require extra effort. I am not pleased with how the doors shut on any of our Mercedes. Even my old Mustang's door shuts easier. The doors of our '99 Suburban shut effortlessly.