Door Striker Bushings

[koda2000]

It must be something in the air, but I suddenly find my door striker bushings are breaking. This causes rattling and a loud clicking noise when opening the doors. This has started happening on 3 of our Explorers/Mountaineers. Based on a thread by drdoom, I made and installed new door and ST tailgate striker bushings out of 1/2 PEX. For $1.86 I have enough material to make about 60 new bushings. I believe the PEX will be more durable than the OE bushing material. I wish the PEX came in black or grey, but you do have the choice of red, blue or white to select from. I went with the blue. I found the PEX needs to be reduced in diameter a bit to work properly for the doors, but it will work w/out modification for the ST's tailgate. For the doors I installed the PEX on the OE striker bolt and chucked it in my cordless drill. Then I spun the bolt while using a rasp to take down the diameter to the proper size, finishing the surface off with a fine file.

Note: The 1/2" PEX will not work for the bushings on the regular Explore's lift-gate, because the bolts/bushings are larger in diameter.

 

[ptf18]

How worn were your old OEM units before you replaced them? The plastic OEM bushings on my 02 S/T have "wear" on them but I dont know if they warrant replacing. How can you tell?

 

[koda2000]

How worn were your old OEM units before you replaced them? The plastic OEM bushings on my 02 S/T have "wear" on them but I dont know if they warrant replacing. How can you tell?

Several bushings were completely missing and several were very thin and beginning to crack. You can wait until they fall off, the latches will still work but will rattle and have a loud click when you open the door. Vehicle age isn't really relevant, it all depends on how often the door is opened/closed. The bushings on our '97 Sport were both missing at 260k. The ones on our '00 Mountaineer were beginning to go at approx 220k. The one on my '01 Sport Trac was cracked at 190k. Sometimes they will split into 2 pieces.

 

[CDW6212R]

I inspected my strikers and latches last December as I noticed the doors not working smoothly etc. I first replaced the front two and adjusted both doors, one hinge on each. Then I did the rears a few days later, and the hatch strikers a week later.

Only one of my front doors had the strikers broken badly, the rest were cracked or deformed a lot. Now after a few months I noticed that one new striker for my hatch is in rough shape. It doesn't shut well unless closed firmly. It's time to replace that one again, and possibly adjust the latches or hinges.

 

[sr139fox]

Check your body mounts. Bad or worn ones can screw up your door alignment. Dave P.