How to Adjust Doors and Side Window Glass

I used to have to slam my door every time to get it to close
all of the way. I also had excessive wind noise from a window which
wouldn’t seal properly. One day I decided I was going to get serious
and fix the problem once and for all.
I had already replaced the hinges
(lift the back of the door up and down while open halfway or less to check
these for excessive play) and had made numerous previous unsuccessful
attempts to adjust the glass. Here’s what I did this time and it worked
beautifully:
First, you must get the door adjustment correct. It
should close completely with very little effort. Begin by rolling the
window down. close the door. If it closes easily, move on to the glass
adjustment described below. If it doesn’t, first check to see if it is
sagging by closing the door as far as possible WITHOUT latching and check
the alignment of the belt molding at the rear of the door and the short
piece of belt molding on the body in front of the rear wheel. They should
be at the same height. My door was sagging by about 3/8”.
To
adjust the door you will need to remove the lower rocker vent panel (the
piece behind the front wheel) to gain access to the lower door hinge
bolts. Turn the front wheels all the way to the right to access the
fenderwell torx bolts. Then there is a 10mm bolt on top of the panel and
one on the bottom. The one on the bottom is a pain to get out because of
the lower rocker piece below it, but by pulling down on the front of the
rocker piece or removing a few of its torx screws you can get it out with
an open end wrench. (A shot of WD40 helps too as the lower bolt is prone
to rust) Once the vented rocker panel is out of the way,loosen the bolts
connecting the hinges to the BODY ONLY. Then get a helper or a floor jack
with a piece of wood, open the door slightly, and raise the back of the
door up so the belt molding on the back of the door is just slightly
higher than the one on the car body. Retighten the hinge to body bolts,
remove support and re-check to see if the door belt molding and body belt
molding heights are level with each other. Once you get this correct, you
can move on to adjusting how the door meets at the lower sill and ”A”
pillar. This is done by checking to see if the door is adjusted too far in
or out at the top by first referencing how the top of the door lines up
with the hood. My door was in about 3/16” further than the hood. I also
noticed too much contact at the top front of the door when closing. (press
door closed with outside door handle held up so you can really feel what
is happening) By loosening all of the bolts connecting the hinge to DOOR
ONLY, the door can be moved and checked for premature contact against the
car body. Try to get the door to close without contacting any part of the
body too soon (ideally you want the door to close flat on the body so you
have even pressure along the weatherstripping, which on the door goes down
the front of the door and along the bottom of the door sill) then tighten
the bolts. Once you are satisfied with how the door closes, its time to
move on to the glass.
Roll up the window and slowly close the door.
Watch the weatherstrip while doing this. The weatherstrip should compress
slightly but evenly along the ”a” pillar and the roof. You can further
check this by closing the door on a dollar bill and pulling the bill out.
You should feel a slight resistance on the bill at any point. Another
check is to turn the A/C or heat blower on high, close the door, and spray
soapy water along the weatherstrip to see if it bubbles, indicating an air
leak.
If you need to adjust the glass, remove the door panel. Make
sure your door switches are not dangling free if you left them connected
to the wiring harness. Because of the C4’s high door sill, you can
smash them when closing the door. I looped mine through the inside door
handle to get them out of the way. Before making any adjustments, first
close the door with the window up and put a strip of masking tape on the
outside of the glass next to and parallel with the outer door sill
weatherstrip. This will give you a vertical reference of where your glass
was when you started and how much you have moved it with each adjustment.
Next, run another strip of tape on the sill weatherstrip itself butted up
to the tape on the glass. Then, draw a vertical line across both pieces
of tape at 2” intervals. This will give you a horizontal reference of
the same. Once you roll the window down halfway to access the bolts,
loosen them, and the glass slides around, you will not know where it was
when you started unless you have these references. The shop manual
suggests scribing around the washers for the bolts holding the glass, but
I don’t think it is nearly as accurate.
Roll the window down far
enough to access the three bolts holding the glass in place. Move it where
you think it needs to go. Retighten and check. It will take some trial and
error to get it right, but it is well worth it. There is also a way to
tilt the glass in or out, by loosening one 10mm bolt near the top rear of
the door if you think that might help. Perform the leak test described
above. When everything seems right, reinstall the lower vented rocker
panel you removed to adjust the door and it is time to test drive and
check for wind noise before putting the door panel back on.
Before
you test drive, grab a big heavy towel or blanket, get in the car and
close the door. Tuck the edge of the blanket into the top of the door sill
and push the rest against the door frame. This will silence the road and
wind noise you would otherwise have with the door panel off. You should be
able to hear any air leaks and correct them before putting the door panel
back on this way. You may want to run water from a hose over the car to
check for leaks as well.
One more tip: If you can’t seem to
eliminate all of the wind noise, try taping the seams between the
windshield and the roof panel and the side of the windshield where it
meets the ”a” pillar. You might have a leaking windshield that was not
installed properly or a top that needs adjustment and mistake that for
side window noise.