Car door striker plate adjustment and moisture problems

[Timothy]

I have to slam my doors to get them to close. I read about installing new hinge pins and bushings and also adjusting the striker plate.

Well I just tried to adjust the striker plate with little success. If I move the plate outward the door closes better but the door will rattle. Too far in and it is hard to close.

If the window is down none of this is a problem. Is there a vent that might be clogged in my car. Which leads me to my next point. I put some towels in back of the car and they are noticeably damp after several weeks, and that makes me think that is caused by condensation due to lack of air ventilation.

Any thoughts are welcomed.

[errjam]

mine is like that so much so I leave a window slightly cracked when I park

[Timothy]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

I've been doing more reading. There are two vents on either side of the hatchback door jam. Some people say this is a pressure relief system. One user wrote that these vents was the cause of water getting in his spare tire well.

I would still love to learn more about this and find out if these are possibly clogged or something.

[william]

I believe they are there for pressure release but there not big enough and when the windows are down all the way the doors shut so nice because the waight is down in the door where it need to be. And there no pressure in the cabin
These doors are so light there hard to close. .But opening a window dose help a lot.
I was going to pull some pressure release valves from a pickup truck because there long and skinny .
And put them in the rear tail pan where the bumper would cover them. This would act like a open window.
You can also role own the windows and pull out on the frame a bit to make it close easier but there's a fine line between making it shut easy and getting wind noise.

[bravekozak]

My doors shut beautifuly now. I have adjusted the strike perectly. The extra weight in the door from the large butyl sound deadener helps make it effortless.
I loosened both the door latch screws and the striker screws. After closing, I opened the door very slowly and then tightened all of the screws before retesting.

I used the same procedure to adjust the strike on the rear hatch.

[Timothy]

My doors shut beautifuly now. I have adjusted the strike perectly. The extra weight in the door from the large butyl sound deadener helps make it effortless.
I loosened both the door latch screws and the striker screws. After closing, I opened the door very slowly and then tightened all of the screws before retesting.

I used the same procedure to adjust the strike on the rear hatch.

I can't wait to give this a try. Thanks for the help.