Wind caught my door and something broke!

Diverjer · March 16, 2023

Well I did a dumb ass thing. It was really windy today and as I got out of truck a real hard blast of wind came up and blew the door open and something broke. Not sure what you call it, but circled it in red. It is flopping around where it goes into the door unlike the other side. What broke off, fell inside of the door panel. Door works fine, opening and closing. What bugs me most is what ever broke off is in the door panel and rolls around when you brake or accelerate. Drives you nuts after awhile. Any instructions how to get the panel off this work truck? Seen some for panels without a manual window handle, think I need a special tool to get a clip off that handle? About got it off except for that handle, so put all back together and just listen to whatever it is roll around. Also when I took the piece in blue off there was not a 7MM bold as one video I found and that piece did not look the same inside or outside as the video I found. I tried to do pictures to show what I got. Maybe I should just take to a shop, would this be a mechanic or body shop? I getting too old to mess with this! That & in picture is suppose to be a 7, also can't type it seems.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Diverjer

CamGTP · March 16, 2023

It's called a door check.

https://www.gmpartsdirect.com/search?search_str=door+check

kickass audio · March 16, 2023

like Cam said it's the door check and is easy to replace yourself with a basic socket set. The nuts and bolts do have threadlocker on them so they are hard to remove but not impossible. You just need to pull the inner door panel off to remove the broken piece of the door check floating around in the door and unbolt the single bolt you see attached to the a-pillar of the door area and then undo the 2 nuts that hold the door check to the inside of the door itself. Remove the door check from the inside of the door and push the new door check into the door and bolt it back up.

edit: for the removal of your door panel itself, I think that the 2 bolts you found inside the grab area of the door panel, the single bolt behind the exit handle, and the 2 at the bottom edge of the panel are all you need to get out. I haven't seen the style of the new crank windows but it likely just needs to be pried off which is super hard to do. Check and see if you can find a tiny c-clip on the handle where it secures the handle to the window crank shaft and if you have a small pick you can pull it.

Edited March 16, 2023 by kickass audio

Diverjer · March 16, 2023

Thanks for the information, door check, that is a good name. Mostly likely it did it's job even though it broke. Gave me a moment to catch it myself. It was kind of hard to close, and that was most likely when door check part got pushed in. Nothing looks bent on door and open and closes fine.

I use to have a tool like this, but long time since I used it, hard to tell where it went.

EDIT Found it, now if I remember got to get that c clamp turned just right so the tool pushes just the right spot to spread it apart. Then to put back on just slide c clamp on handle and push on. Hopefully tool right size?

Edited March 16, 2023 by Diverjer

Diverjer · March 16, 2023

The video I seen that said there was a 7 mm bolt in that panel that I circled in blue, I didn't see any bolt. However the video panel looked a lot different and on top of it was multiple buttons for windows etc and was longer, my WT has none of those window buttons. So that is mostly likely why no bolt head was back there.

kickass audio · March 16, 2023

20 hours ago, Diverjer said:

The video I seen that said there was a 7 mm bolt in that panel that I circled in blue, I didn't see any bolt. However the video panel looked a lot different and on top of it was multiple buttons for windows etc and was longer, my WT has none of those window buttons. So that is mostly likely why no bolt head was back there.

that's why I feel yours does not have that bolt. Mine is a LT and there is a bolt right above where the speaker is and where the window switches are but since your panel it totally different and you have nothing in that place your screw in the picture does not exist at all.

Don't forget to pull the plastic cover where your outside mirror mounts since that will be hung up a bit in the door when you yank the panel off.

Diverjer · March 24, 2023

Well I got new door check in and installed and picked up 5 pieces of trash rolling around in door that was driving me nuts. Really the stuff rolling around is the only reason I put new door check on. All back together and took off and still stuff rolling around in door!! Take things apart again and there were 3 little ball bearings in there found with magnet. Now all is quite, nothing rolling around.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Diverjer

BigBadSierra · March 27, 2023

Yup at least they are not to hard to do your self. Broke one on my 2014 it was so crazy I'm not a small guy and not thin or weak. I opened the door that day and the thing pulled me right out of the truck and onto the ground. The only reason I didn't actually get hurt on that one was the seat belt was undone but still across my chest so I got hung up coming out and slowed down.

But it snapped the door check lol.