Cherokee passenger door question 01 Cherokee

My wife rode in my 01 Cherokee I just got recently and noticed a gap in the front passenger door right at the top toward the front of the door. She could see daylight through it.

Sure enough, when I sat in the seat, I verified it. Upon inspection, the door has an obvious gap there. My first thought was maybe a door gasket was missing, but that does not seem to be the case. Every other part of the door matches up properly with the rest of the body.

Could an accident have caused this? There are no obvious signs that an accident occured and was fixed. Could the door have been hung wrong at the factory? I carfaxed the vehicle and an accident report did not show up.

Once again, any thoughts are appreciate>:banghead:

Open the door and window fully. Brace your knee on the inside of the door. Grab the window frame where it's loose and give it a few hard, jerky pulls towards you.

You can test the fit using a dollat bill. Close the door on the dollar. Slide the dollar around, you should feel some resisitance. If not, the seals too loose. Try some more tugging..

You must have watched the powerblock over the weekend saudade. As for the problem with the door look very carefully at the seam around the door and see if there's any irregularities in the spacing then look straight down the body and see if the body lines look out of alignment. If the spacing or body lines don't look right then start taking a very close look as it's possibly a sign of some kind of damage.

Try the method that Saudade has suggested.

That is the way we did it at the dealership. (On Jaguars)

We also "shimmed" up the gasket with "dum-dum" if necessary. The Jags were hand made cars and didn't fit as well as the robotically made Japanese products.

Thanks for the advise. I took the vehicle to a friends body shop. He examined the door and concluded there was no apparent damage from an accident. He tried the technique you guys suggested without luck.

After looking at it again, it is very obvious the door is out of alignment. He thinks a wind gust may have hyper extended the upper door hinge. He says he can fix it by re-hanging the door. So that will be the next step. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

You must have watched the powerblock over the weekend saudade. As for the problem with the door look very carefully at the seam around the door and see if there's any irregularities in the spacing then look straight down the body and see if the body lines look out of alignment. If the spacing or body lines don't look right then start taking a very close look as it's possibly a sign of some kind of damage.
As a matter of fact I did. I watch it every weekend. However, this is a trick I learned waaaaay back. After shutting my doors on seat belts, hats, ropes, and other stuff, sometimes the upper door portion gets out of whack.

OK, the dollar bill came from them. ;)

Thanks for the advise. I took the vehicle to a friends body shop. He examined the door and concluded there was no apparent damage from an accident. He tried the technique you guys suggested without luck.

After looking at it again, it is very obvious the door is out of alignment. He thinks a wind gust may have hyper extended the upper door hinge. He says he can fix it by re-hanging the door. So that will be the next step. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

Does the door lay flush with the surrounding body? Are there any gaps elsewhere around the door?

Yes the door lays flush. There are gaps on the upper right part of the door, both horizontal and verticle. The door had just enough play that it will still close properly (flush) lock, etc.

I took the Jeep in to my body guy today who looked closely at the door problem. He says the vehicle was in an accident involving the right front panel. That makes sense now that I think about it. This would explain the door. He showed me some of the replacement parts that were used to fix it; none of it OEM. He said the radiator was new - Chinese origin. This would also explain why the hood would not open without some help with someone pushing down on it while I popped the indoor handle. I am a little disappointed CARFAX didn't catch this, but I guess they are only as accurate as the information reported to them.

In any event, he was able to tighten the gap a little. I might just stick an extra gasket at the top of the door line and call it good.

I still like the ride altho at $4.00 a gallon (soon to be anyhow) I wish it got better gas mileage than 15/20.

Thanks for the help.