Power door closes then opens back up... annoying

[rkvons]

Originally Posted by dorlow

The only problem I'm having now is when the door closes, the motor usually runs for a few seconds after the door is closed. You can hear it straining trying to close it "thinking" it's not closed yet. I'm pretty sure there's programming that can be done to retrain the car to know where the door is open and where it is closed.

Mine does this too. But it does it more often the colder it is outside. When it is warm, or hot, it doesn't do it. I have had mine all apart and cannot figure out why it does it. When it does it, the alarm will go off when you put it into drive indicating that the door is open. But it isn't open. I can hear relays or solenoids clicking around in there when the door is closing and it has reached the end of its travel. I think there is something with the relays/solenoids that goes wrong when it malfunctions.

[dorlow]

Originally Posted by rkvons

Strangely enough, mine does this too. But it does it more often the colder it is outside. When it is warm, or hot, it doesn't do it. I have had mine all apart and cannot figure out why it does that. When it does it, the alarm will go off when you put it into drive indicating that the door is open. But it isn't open.

Mine doesn't not do it in winter months... weather temp doesn't make a difference. The alarm should only go off if it thinks the door is still open, which means the contacts are dirty or not fully making contact... usually. Who knows with this crapy design though. But over the past year or so, I know more about sliding doors on vans than I ever wanted to know.

[qsecofr]

I performed the re-initialization procedure on 3/18/10. Today is 4/1/10 and I have not had one single problem with the door since it was reset. I was having problems consistently before the reset procedure was performed.

I was noticing the motor sometimes did keep running well after the door was either open or shut. I think the reset sequence recalibrates something within the door motor so it "knows" where to stop running.

Anyway, I just wanted to post my results. I was having alarms and door not closing fully issues but after resetting everything is good now. I did clean all contacts with a dollar bill at the same time I reset the doors. Maybe that helped too.

This thread saved me from taking it to the dealership. Thank you all so much!!!!!

[DBrent]

Most here are traveling down the wrong road.. when power doors on a mini van get a little ware on them they tend to slouch a bit, and the more they slouch the more this problem will occur. The simple fix to keep your door closed is to locate the lower slide on the front of the door. There are 3 bolts on this slide that hold the slide to the door (the top one is behind a plug in the door trim use a slot screw driver to pry this plug out). using a 1/2" socket on a 3/8" drive ratchet loosen these three bolts and slightly adjust door down in the bolt holes in the bracket (by sliding the door down it actually adjusts the door up when tightened)After loosening the bolts, I used a 2lb hammer and lightly tapped the bracket that holds the slide to the door with my knee under the door to hold the door up. Then I tightened the bracket back up. I did this till the door stayed closed when activating the door close button. my door now stays shut when closed.

[dorlow]

I don't know if my advice will help. I had this problem when we first bought it. One of the first times, my wife couldn't get the door closed. It would just reopen automatically. She drove the car to the dealer with it opened and demanded they fixed it. They couldn't figure it out either. I was wondering if the door was not lined up right. I heard the trick with wiping the sensors. I couldn't get mine to work. So, I did something really stupid. I loosened up the bolts for the door to the track for the front and back of the door so the door was moving all over. I learned real quick that getting those bolts back in the right spot is extremely difficult. After hours of trying different spots and nothing was working (I was thinking I was going to have to have my car towed to the dealer and say I was an idiot for loosening the bolts.) My door was way off where it wouldn't even start to close. I then just took the dirt marks and tried to line up the door with where the dirt marks were at and after playing around with it more, I finally got the door to close again. But somehow that fixed it. Ever since doing it, for some weird reason, when closing the door, the motor runs for a second or so after the door is closed like it thinks it isn't closed all the way. But, other than that, it has worked almost flawlessly (for years now.) It's extremely rare we have problems with that door. Sometimes we have issues with the door not opening. That's the lock. Sometimes the door doesn't unlock. So, I just have to reach to the manual unlock button on the door and make sure it's unlocked to open it. I guess I'm not suggesting you just loosen up the door guides... but I guess take the logic into consideration. Maybe there's something I could've done less drastic to accomplish the same thing. I'm sure the door is just in a slightly different position that it was before I loosened it and that's why it's been working flawlessly.