Sprinter Doors

[RAW]

I have a few issues with the doors on the old Merc Sprinter 311Cdi 2000 Year
So the Rear door is not meeting properly at the top, have only noticed this recently maybe because parked in a different place to normal. See picture below.
The hinge bearings need replacing, mainly because Mercedes used nearside hing as offside hinge inverted and that causes more strain on bearing surface as hinge bearing on lower side when mounted that way. My son spotted that one and said it was a amnufacturing decision to reduce production costs but a bad decision mechanically. Saying that it is not the bearings causing the issue. Not sure how to fix, have thought about reversing up to a contained carefully with some batten or something similar to push the door in !!

The other issue is the passenger door seems to still let rain in under windy conditions and I am wondering if it is to do with the fact that there should be seals where the arrow is but there are none. There are no seals on driver's door either but so far that has not let water in

Any help appreciated. TIA

 

[SquirrellCook]

Looking a the marks in the paint, I don't think the front door seal is mounted properly. As for the rear doors, I find you can often bend them to fit better.

 

[RAW]

Looking a the marks in the paint, I don't think the front door seal is mounted properly.

Yep quite possibly in that top left corner, thanks

 

[wildebus]

This cab door seal/fit thing seems to be a very common problem with sprinters and the VW LT sister ship.
You can have a go at adjusting the hinges and try to bring the window frame in a bit closer maybe? I've adjusted both of mine to make them close nicely (they were poor before because the seller just swapped the green doors over with some white doors on another LT before the sale and never really set them up properly).
Now I have the opposite issue to you - my passenger door is fairly good but my drivers door has always been drafty.
I don't think the doors have any seals on them as standard and they rely on the seal on the vehicle frame. On my drivers door the window frame part of the door only touches some of the seal so I decided to add some door seal I had spare from VW T5 installs where I think the door is not touching the seal

I did this middle of March and haven't actually driven the van since so not sure how much effect this will have, but I do know adding this seal to a T5 cab door, where there is no seal fitted EXCEPT on the Caravelle models makes a noticable difference.

This is how the T5 door seal is added - maybe try something similar?

 

[RAW]

This cab door seal/fit thing seems to be a very common problem with sprinters and the VW LT sister ship.
You can have a go at adjusting the hinges and try to bring the window frame in a bit closer maybe?

Yep will do that and also I bought some of this on EBAY

Large D-Type Car Door Seal Strip Boot Bonnet Rubber Edge Trim Roll 12X14mm 6263943663778 | eBay

Large D-Type Car Door Boot Bonnet Rubber Edge Trim Seal Strip Roll 12X14mm 2. 1.4M D-type Door Rubber Seal Strip Weather Seal Draft Roll for Car Truck Motor Van. 1 Roll of 4M D-Type Car Door Sealing. Enhance the airtight body.

www.ebay.co.uk

Seems cheap enough but is it best to stick it to where the black rubber marks are from the seal that is sat on the frame that the door closes up to or in that recess that I have pointed to with arrows above? The recess looks like it should have something in it, but maybe more of the draft seal type flat tape rather than D tape ?

 

[wildebus]

I would not use the flat tape - the D-Seal is needed I am sure. You need the give for it to compress when you slam the door and them push back to keep the seal.
That link on ebay looks like the right stuff. you will need one strip per door I would think.
Don't know where it would go. Could be to match the shape of the door opening or the outer surround? Got me thinking on that one as well as this has been an annoyance to me for years now and don't know yet if the strip I added is right or not!

 

[RAW]

Got me thinking on that one as well as this has been an annoyance to me for years now and don't know yet if the strip I added is right or not!

Interesting, on the Merc now the door strip is on the frame rather than on the door. Although saying that it has been resprayed in the past and strip would have been removed for that to be done

 

[SquirrellCook]

Have you considered that at some point in it's history some "low life" may have bent the door trying to get in?

 

[Sprinter 1 cup]

I've just had the same with rear top latch , just took latch off and put it on nearside and put nearside latch with good D on last closing door !
Front door should not have a seal down the lock side.

 

[wildebus]

Have you considered that at some point in it's history some "low life" may have bent the door trying to get in?

Apparently it (door gaps, not break-ins) is very common with Sprinters. One 'fix' is to mechanically bend the top frame in (as you would do if a gorilla bent the frame out to try and break in - I had someone do that on my Mitsubushi Lancer Drivers door)

 

[RAW]

have a similar slightly worse issue on my Sprinter (year 2000 model)

 

[Sprinter 1 cup]

Yes it's what's on the inside that counts

I have 3 D rings things . Loosened closed doors pulled hard at top of doors from inside, tighted star nuts from inside from inside.
Closed tight, and pushed on near side now as photography

 

[wildebus]

What year is your Sprinter?
I have a VW LT from 2003 which is the same doors as the Mk 1 Sprinter I think, but have a quite different locking setup. Strange.

 

[Sprinter 1 cup]

Are yours 3 point locks top middle and bottom with D rings ? phots. Mine is 2016 first of add blue. States it from 2008

 

[Nabsim]

There is some i for on Sprinter doors here http://www.diysprinter.co.uk/reference/

 

[wildebus]

Are yours 3 point locks top middle and bottom with D rings ? phots. Mine is 2016 first of add blue. States it from 2008

2016? ah, different generation entirely. That would explain it. Your Sprinter is a different model to both mine and RAWs - we have the "T1N" version; you have a "NCV3" model.