No, the sidemarker is in your bumper cover, not the quarter panel. That's a vent.

 

Nothing was obstructing the vents other than the carpeted mats. I even flipped down the rear seats and the driver door was still a PITA to close/open.

I popped the trunk and the driver's door became significantly easier to close/open. It almost seems like the vents are undersized.

If you flip down the rear seats, is the trunk carpeted mat (for the spare tire cover) over or behind/under the black plastic "rails" ?

 

 

How do I know if the vents are blocked or if they are working properly? Why would the driver's door not work as well as the passenger side door?

 

I wouldn't worry about the vents being blocked. That's not too likely. If the problem is really that bad, take it to the dealer and see what they say (probably gonna say it's normal). Check w/ the bodyshop and ask if the doors are aligned properly to the striker plate and if the latch is functioning properly. Some of the S197's have had a problem with the door handle not retracting properly. Maybe it's related to this. (?)

 

If everything remains sealed, I practically have to yank out the door handle to even get the door to release from the vacuum seal. Closing it feels like I'm trying to compress air into the cabin. However the passenger door doesn't have the same problem and is slightly easier to open/close.

I thought it might be the door itself or the latching system, but if I roll down the driver window or open the passenger door just a crack (to allow faster pressure equalization), the driver door closes/opens VERY easily and without any problems at all.

 

No problems here at all. I love how solid the doors feel and sound when you close them.

Like someone else said....might want to take it to the dealer if you really think it's a problem.

 

Upon further inspecting and investigating, I can rule out clogged/blocked vents. Right upon closing the door, I can hear the vents in the trunk go FLOOOOOOOOP.

I found the specs for the door alignment and noticed the rear measurement was rather tight (below spec) for the driver's door. But I figured aligning the door will require more work and possibly cause more problems than I'd want, so i focused on the door striker. I noticed the door striker bar was "dead center" for engaging the latch of the door on the passenger side. HOWEVER, on the driver side the bar was perhaps 3-4 mm higher. I went to loosen the top torx bit and CRACK... all the edges of the star pattern snapped off (cheap Chinese steel or aluminum torx bolt). I'm now SOL for adjusting the striker.

Using my hand torque-meter, it felt like the factory used an air impact ratchet and blasted these torx screws to 30+ ft-lb, it SURE AS HECK did not feel like the 18 ft-lb called out in the FSM.


The striker looks like it needs to be realigned or the bump stop needs to be trimmed. They squished that striker almost all the way back, so they must have thought the same thing.

 

Take it in,even though you might not want to

 

You can adjust the striker without loosening the torx bolt. That's how they are adjusted at the factory. Just get a peice of wood or hard plastic , and a hammer. Or the other option is a screw driver through the center of the striker and just "twist" it up or down to where you need it. Some people might not want to fool with it though, so you might just want to run it to the dealer.

 

Is that what the factory really does? No wonder the bolts are jammed...

 

Yeah the weld nuts for the striker plates are what they call "floating", so that they can be adjusted.

 

The FSM says to loosen the two screws in order to adjust them. I guess the factory doesn't have time to do that?

 

Well, if that's the case, then it might be only by a couple of foot pounds that they loosen it, otherwise they'd be putting a lot of shear stress on the striker bolts causing even more problems.

 

Update: I tried finding the closest match for the grease used by Ford in the latches at the factory (almost entirely clear, no odor, etc...) and came upon a stash of Militec-1 grease I had. In the past, I've used Redline, Mobil industrial grade (green smelly stuff), and Wal-Mart lithium moly (black grease). They've always started to bleed out and the soap base would dry up. The militec-1 seems to remain sticky all the time. It *seems* to have made the door easier to open/close, but it could have been the 50-60+ times I've opened/closed the door and everything's just breaking in.

The striker bar doesn't show signs of extreme metal wear (just two tiny indentations that have not gone past the powdercoating).