will my doors fly off??

[evanna!]

ok, so around 45-55 mph my doors start flapping like crazy, it makes my car sound really unstable like the doors are just waiting to fly off!

does anyone else have this problem?! my dad suggested to bend the doors but that it wouldn't be a permanent solution, and if we were to keep doing that the doors or the windows or something...will eventually break

HELP MEEEEeEeEeEe!

***********************INFO*********************** **********

its a 92 festiva GL, my bf said that the hinges were bad and in turn make the doors sag so that's part of why the doors flap maybe? i would say so.

keep in mind that this car was found under a tree, and it was probably there for 2 years at least.

I've had this car for about 5 months, within the first month of having my car, i switched the passenger door with that of a junk car (it was in better condition) but don't think i did it right. since the hinges are crappy, i didn't think there was much to do about it, and the door shut right so i wasn't complaining.

3 months into owning my car, we had rebuilt a head on the engine (it was only running on three of its four cylinders) so with that out of the way (plus balancing the wheels to fix the car shake problem)...we were able to take it to higher speeds; 55+ mph. it was then that we noticed the engine wasn't making noise....nor was it the car shakin its groove thing, but it was air passing freely through the doors at the top.

i wouldn't be surprised if my car just flapped away with me in it!

- Evanna

[Andrew]

My Aspire did that with the driver door at around 60+mph. The problem is the doors aren't sealing right and the difference in air pressure between the outside at that speed and the cabin are what causes it. I put weather stripping around the top of the door frame and that stopped it right quick.

I think the "right" way of fixing it would be to realign the doors, but this worked well enough for me, especially considering I'm not sure how one would realign the doors.

[packrat427]

When I worked at a Chevy dealership in the 80's we had cars come in complaining of wind noise and the weatherstripping was good ,it was new cars , we would put the windows down ,knee in the middle of the door ,and pull the top in very easy only enough to tweak it a little to help fit the top in tighter ,so the door fits tight and does not catch as much air ,you might even be able to adjust the striker in a little to help it fit tighter , now on the Festy you may not want to do the knee , might rip the top of the door off :lol: do just a little at a time.

[mechanicaldj]

do your doors shut flush with the rear quarter panels? or slightly in at the bottom of the door and out at the top?

how long have you had this festy?

did it all of a sudden start doing this?

could we have a little background on the car?

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3590[/url]

[eye_of_ra93]

my rear hatch chatters at high speeds

My rear hatch makes some noises like you described, chances are its just the seals. Yours may be worn or weathered, it causes small gaps and that causes the doors to like chatter and make noises. I would check those rubber like seals and maybe go get some better ones and install em. You can probably get some at a yard from some donor car. I did. That leaky air makes you get cold as heck in the Festy, and its noisy too.

[Safety Guy]

Evanna, if the main source of your air noise and flapping comes from the tops of the doors, make sure the rubber door seals are in good shape first. If so, lower the window and do what Packrat suggested.

I had some air noise and "excess ventilation" problems on my '93GL left side door. Eventually, I fixed it by putting a short block of 2 X 4 in the door around the lock area and carefully pushed in the door top to bend it inwards to seal better. It's not too hard to do. Do a little at a time until your problem stops. It may help to have someone hold the bottom of the door closed so the wood block stays in place while someone else pushes on the door top, which is not that hard to bend. Just be careful and make sure that window is rolled down first!

Karl