Wind shuttering noise on top of front doors-2008 ram.

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corneileous

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Just wondering if there's a fix for this. A couple of years ago I resorted to adjusting the striker bolts inward a little to th point of almost making it to where you had to slam the doors fairly hard in order for them to latch which, fixed a lot of it but, on really windy days, it still feels like the damn wind is tryin' to rip the doors off.

Any suggestions?

Although my girl is old, by eight years, she's only got barely over 60 grand on the clock. I would like to think I still had quite a few miles to go before it's time to do a bushing job on the hinges. Besides, I have next to no play movement at all in the hinges.

I guess I could try threading that styrofoam caulk strip stuff in the hollow door gasket but the last time I tried that a long time ago on a different vehicle, it made the gaskets so stiff that I had readjust the strikers outward just so the doors would latch. Come to think of it, I think it even made more leaks because it took away from the gaskets pliability to conform to the door opening.

Thanks in advance.


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Hardcore1

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I cant help you but my 07 with 78K does the same thing so I would love to hear a fix also.
Anyone?
 
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corneileous

corneileous

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Hmmm. I guess not.


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MADDOG

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Check to make sure your door seal isn't folded over, torn, flattened or separating from the body.

This is a rubber part and it will eventually fail. My 2007 had a similar problem and the only fix was to replace it.
 

Rustycowl69

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how do you know it's not just the mirror?
 

Hardcore1

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I ran about 200 miles on NJ highways last night. The "Polar Vortex" wind was fierce. My problem is definitely the seal in the upper frame of the door. I found myself grabbing the upper part of the window frame and pulling it in by hand to stop the noise. As long as I was pulling in with a good amount of force it sealed good. Alas there is only so long you can do that :) . I started thinking maybe a locksmith (or thief) had used one of those body wedges in the upper frame of the door at some point in time to get into the truck. Maybe that tweaked the door frame a little. I have been thinking to put a block of wood in between the door and the jam and push in on the top and maybe I can tweak it back just enough to make a good seal. I just may try it as soon as the freak cold lightens up.
 
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corneileous

corneileous

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Check to make sure your door seal isn't folded over, torn, flattened or separating from the body.

This is a rubber part and it will eventually fail. My 2007 had a similar problem and the only fix was to replace it.



Yeah, I'll definitely have to check that out this weekend.

If my door gaskets are still in good shape, I may have to run to the hardware store and see if they have something smaller to stuff in the weatherstripping. That stuff I mentioned in my opening post wasn't very much smaller than the hollow cavity in the weatherstripping on that other vehicle I had and needless to say, it was a ***** gettin' it in there. lol.


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corneileous

corneileous

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how do you know it's not just the mirror?



Well, I've had air leaks from side view mirrors before, a 2004 Dakota to be exact but, you can definitely tell that the top of the door is shuttering in and out of the body.


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corneileous

corneileous

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I ran about 200 miles on NJ highways last night. The "Polar Vortex" wind was fierce. My problem is definitely the seal in the upper frame of the door. I found myself grabbing the upper part of the window frame and pulling it in by hand to stop the noise. As long as I was pulling in with a good amount of force it sealed good. Alas there is only so long you can do that :) . I started thinking maybe a locksmith (or thief) had used one of those body wedges in the upper frame of the door at some point in time to get into the truck. Maybe that tweaked the door frame a little. I have been thinking to put a block of wood in between the door and the jam and push in on the top and maybe I can tweak it back just enough to make a good seal. I just may try it as soon as the freak cold lightens up.



I read on another forum where someone said they resorted to bending the top of the door frame inward that apparently worked. Supposedly while sitting in the seat sideways, they put their feet on the armrest and pulled the top of the door frames towards them. I'd really rather save that as a last resort because I'm afraid if you accidentally bend them too far, you may fix those leaks but you'll create new leaks somewhere else...[emoji12]


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MADDOG

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Foam strip tape will work. The stuff they truck topper shops use to seal between the truck bed rail and the bottom rail of the topper is used by folks to sort of build back old door seals.

So do you really think the door frame is bent? Does your door latch properly?
 
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corneileous

corneileous

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Foam strip tape will work. The stuff they truck topper shops use to seal between the truck bed rail and the bottom rail of the topper is used by folks to sort of build back old door seals.
I'll have to look into that. I never thought about camper seal.

I just don't want it to look redneck...lol.

So do you really think the door frame is bent? Does your door latch properly?


I don't think the doors are bent outta whack per say, I think it's just a design flaw. After doing a quick google search, there appears to be quite a few gen 3 ram owners dealing with the same issue.

If you've ever paid close enough attention to the gen 4 rams, you'll see that the problem was addressed when they redesigned the tops of the doors to tuck in and below the roof of the cab whereas on the gen 3's, there's an open cavity between the cab and the top of the door. If you've ever stood in the bed and looked down on your cab you can see a fairly large area there for a crosswind to grab ahold of the upper lip of the door. lol.



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corneileous

corneileous

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Yeah, the doors latch as good as they must have when it was new.


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corneileous

corneileous

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Well, I think I may have found a cheap easy solution. Not sure how long it'll last but since enough of it came in the ten dollar package, there's plenty of it left over to replace it in a year or two's time before I'd have to buy more.

I decided to look into more of the possibly of the styrofoam caulk strip stuff I mentioned in my opening post. The hardware store I bought it at calls it backer rod. They had it in two different sizes, 3/4 and 7/8. I went with the smaller.
bae4a22ecfd28b167f51c904655fd846.jpg

Anywho, instead of thinking I should try to stuff it inside the weatherstripping, I noticed a gap behind the weatherstripping that I could stuff that backer rod into. See picture.
8532529c94fcaf4a87cecb2090d16263.jpg47ba6c6a8cfe5d0a05b19691805dcc43.jpg

Since it's pretty windy from that cold front blowing in, I didn't notice any shuttering and, it seemed like it was really trying. Didn't really make the doors any harder to shut, either.


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corneileous

corneileous

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Just drove home from a Christmas party and the doors no longer shuttered. Wind was blowing about 18 miles an hour with 28 mile an hour wind gusts.


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ST-8

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If you've ever paid close enough attention to the gen 4 rams, you'll see that the problem was addressed when they redesigned the tops of the doors to tuck in and below the roof of the cab whereas on the gen 3's, there's an open cavity between the cab and the top of the door. If you've ever stood in the bed and looked down on your cab you can see a fairly large area there for a crosswind to grab ahold of the upper lip of the door. lol.



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I noticed this as well about the generation change. My truck will do it at 75+ sounds like it's coming from my passenger door
 

akennedyusmc

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Good read. I'll be trying this soon. I have this same problem on my front doors. Incredibly annoying.


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corneileous

corneileous

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Good read. I'll be trying this soon. I have this same problem on my front doors. Incredibly annoying.


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So far, nice and quiet still. I have a slight whistle somewhere over on the passenger side that I need to address but as far as the crosswinds making it sound like they are trying to tear my doors off, that's a thing of the past, now.
 

BgHrn

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Cool, my drivers' door make the same noise, terrible. Now I know the fix, thanks!
 
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corneileous

corneileous

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It's been quite a while since this I made this thread but thought I'd update almost 5 months later and say that my doors are still chatter-free. I figgered at least by now I'd have to replace the backer rod from it being rotted from the sun and heat but it's still holding up well.
 
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