Creaking front doors?

F

fish20bcm

Member
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2008 Mazdaspeed 3 Sport & 2008 CX-9 Touring
I've got a 2008 CX-9 Touring with approx 43k on the odometer. Bought it about 2 months ago as a certified pre-owned and have been very happy with it. I've noticed though that there is a creaking sound in the front doors when they open/close. Took it in to a local Mazda dealer today, didn't get to it sooner due to the holidays and whatnot, and they said it is the "door checker" for each door and its NOT covered under the CPO warranty....wha?!? So they wanted to charge me about $200 to fix the issue, i said no thanks. It doesn't seem to affect the function of the doors but is an annoyance for sure and makes the front doors sound like an old pickup truck....this definitely shouldn't be the case on a 3 yr old vehicle (originally sold Jan 2009) with less than 45k miles right?!?

I am going to go back to the dealer I bought it from (not close) and will start haggling with them since the vehicle is only 2 months old (to me) and was sold as a CPO.

My question is this....has anyone here had this issue? If so, did the dealer cover it for you under warranty/tsb/recall? And what model year is your vehicle?

Or can i just spray some white lithium grease or the like down in the area of the door checker and make it quiet? (huh)

I see that there is a TSB for the door checkers on 2007 models but nothing for 2008 models.

Thanks in advance!
 
The original TSB was not about noises. The checker failed.
Did you try to lube the hinge and checker?
 
ceric said:
The original TSB was not about noises. The checker failed.
Did you try to lube the hinge and checker?
Click to expand...

Not yet thats the first thing I'm going to try this weekend, just was curious if anybody else has had this issue and if so how,or if, it was resolved.
 
Not me personally. I don't think this is a common issue.
Since you bought it used, any could have happened before you.
It is a risk that comes with getting an used vehicle.
I am surprised that the CPO did not cover it.
Did you read the coverage? I've never owned a CPO before, but
my impression is that it should be almost like OE warranty for a period of
time (1 year?) at least.
 
ceric said:
Not me personally. I don't think this is a common issue.
Since you bought it used, any could have happened before you.
It is a risk that comes with getting an used vehicle.
I am surprised that the CPO did not cover it.
Did you read the coverage? I've never owned a CPO before, but
my impression is that it should be almost like OE warranty for a period of
time (1 year?) at least.
Click to expand...

My impression was that the CPO warranty was just like the OE warranty as well for 12/12,000 and of course thats how the dealer presented it. But I looked at the CPO covered items and they are the major ones of couse, A/C - tranny - engine - suspension - etc, but nothing specifically mentioned about the doors or body. And of course it says something to the effect of "all other items not specifcially listed" as not covered.
 
Got it. So CPO is basically an ext. warranty.
Well, try the lubing first. Let us know.
 
Same thing happening on our '08 with 26k. Lubing it up didn't help. Might just take the checker out and see what makes it tick.
 
T.Narley said:
Same thing happening on our '08 with 26k. Lubing it up didn't help. Might just take the checker out and see what makes it tick.
Click to expand...

So did you get it fixed or just been living with it? Lubing with both silicone spray and white lithium grease spray didn't help me either.
 
Maybe the checker is broken. Though it is a $20 parts, it seems like a two-hour job to me.
I am sure dealer will charge you at least two hours for it. That is easily $250 total.
 
I want to make sure this doesn't happen to my CX-9. Does anyone know the right lubrication to use? No, seriously. :p

Owner Manual states...

Body Lubrication
All moving points of the body, such as
door and hood hinges and locks, should
be lubricated each time the engine oil is
changed. Use a nonfreezing lubricant on
locks during cold weather.
 
Lubing might not help, but it is inexpensive to try.
Try silicone/lithium grease.
AutoZone has them.
 
ceric said:
Maybe the checker is broken. Though it is a $20 parts, it seems like a two-hour job to me.
I am sure dealer will charge you at least two hours for it. That is easily $250 total.
Click to expand...

Yep the part is approx $18 but the dealer wanted $209 to do the repair so most of the cost is labor and it looks like about a 2 hr job to me too...
 
We bought our '08 GT brand new and within 2 weeks, a wind gust caught the driver's door as it was opened and forcefully opened it past its stopping point. The door then started to creak every time we opened/closed it. Took it to the dealership and it was fixed free under the factory warranty. Sounds like your extended warranty should cover it.
 
After some "convincing", the dealer that sold us the CPO CX-9 agreed to fix the issue for no charge. Got the door checkers replaced today and theres no more '76 ford pickup truck sounds when the doors are opened. Glad to put this issue to bed finally.
 
I have a related issue to the noisy checker, although mine doesn't make any noise but has pulled out letting the door swing open past it intended stop point. When the door opens too far the door skin sheet metal can be damaged (kinked) by contacting the over extended hinge.

There is a "Special Service Program" (SSP #73) to repair specific early CX9s that fell within a particular VIN range, which mine did. I booked an appointment with my dealer to have the checker replaced but wen I arrived, I was told that the campaign had already been done on my (pre-owned) vehicle.

It's ~$275 to replace the checker (parts & labor) at my dealership so I'm going to replace it myself. I ordered the parts today and will post any "gotchas", once I finished the repair.

Thanks to helbigtw for providing the TSB (SSP) info.
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...quot-Door-Checker-quot-replacement-on-2007-GT
 
If I were you I will call Mazda (Canada?) and ask them to pay for 1/2 of the bill.
See what kind of response you get from them. Won't hurt, will it?
 
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ceric said:
If I were you I will call Mazda (Canada?) and ask them to pay for 1/2 of the bill.
See what kind of response you get from them. Won't hurt, will it?
Click to expand...

I did, and they told me they wouldn't provide any good will but recommend I contact the dealer who originally replaced the checker (but didn't place the campaign decal under the hood, indicating the work was completed) to see if they might offer to pay half. I called the original servicing dealer, but unfortunately they said that warranty work is only covered within the original warranty period. In fact if they do a covered repair on the last day of the warranty period and it fails the very next day, they will not cover the cost to re-fix it.

Since the part is relatively inexpensive, I'll try to do the work myself. I'll probably spend less time on the repair than I would dropping off and picking up the car from the dealer anyway.
 
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I too have this issue. I am not sure if it is the exact same sound you guys are hearing, but it's more of a "popping" as opposed to a creaking. My guess is that either the pin it attaches to the door frame with is worn, or the checker arm where it attaches to the pin is worn. When I open my door, I can see the checker assembly by the door frame shift/shudder/jump with every pop I hear.
 
So, I did a little work on my driver door, which made popping noises when it opened. I drilled out the pin that holds the checker to the door frame, and found the issue. It is a really poor design. The arm of the checker has a hole at the end which the pin goes through. The entire tip of the arm is encased in some sort of plastic. The pin actually fits through this plastic, which breaks. When it breaks, the pin is free to move as the metal checker arm hole is actually a larger diameter than the pin. Why they didn't make the arm hole the same size as the pin is beyond me. If they had, I imagine it would have taken some of the force and perhaps saved the plastic from breaking.

I'm going to try redrilling the hole in the checker arm and the holes in the bracket that attach to the door frame to make them the same size, then put some sort of metal dowel or fine thread bolt in there. I'll have to drill larger than the checker arm hole is currently though, because the hole is actually slightly oval rather than round. (Not sure if it was wallowed out from wear or what) It's about 1/4" one direction, but slightly wider in the other direction. So putting in a 1/4" pin isn't going to do the trick. I'll keep you all posted.

BTW - I realize this is not the "proper" way to fix things, but if it saves a couple of hours of my time taking off the door card then I'm willing to try.
 
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