The driver door on my 1995 E300D has been harder to close than others since I bought the car about a year ago. I had looked on this board for advice on how to adjust the latch, but never seemed to find anything definitive. So today I just decided to fiddle with it and see what happened.

Here’s what worked for me. I adjusted the striker on the sill, and I only lubed the latch mechanism on the door itself. First I took some whiteout and marked reference marks around the striker (you can see them in the photo). If your car has light paint you can use a sharpie or something.

Then I took a T40 torx socket and loosened the striker plate. A torx screwdriver probably won’t work, as these two bolts were VERY tight. My simple logic was to move it outwards a tiny bit and see if that would allow it to latch easier. So I moved it outwards about 1 mm.

VOILA! As simple as that, my door latches much easier! No more slamming. With the window down I can practically let gravity latch it, with the windows all up it takes a normal push to latch it.

So, don’t be timid. Go ahead and fiddle with it. If all else fails, put it back where it was using your reference marks and you won’t be any worse off.

Rgds,
Chris W.

Attached Thumbnails