esteem

Whenever i take hit a bump in the road the back door moves and makes noise. while off roading this is extremly annoying because it sounds like the door isnt closed all the way but it is. I see the back door is on hinges at the top that im wondering if they can some how be tightened? I did replace the rubber stops near the midpart of the jeep, this helped but didnt solve the problem. Is there something else i can do about it?

I am new to Cherokee forum so this is my first time and would appricaite any responses. thanks

cgeers

Mine does the same thing. I didn't know that they were made out of fiberglass.

esteem

from what i know, they were made out of fiber glass until 96 or 97. mine is a 98 so i beleive it isnt. im not possitive thought

bembas221

i have the same problem on my 99 and couldn't figure it out either. its been like that for about 40K miles now. i just stuff a towel in between the rubber weatherstripping and the door lol, but i would love to fix it because it bothers the ***** out of me. and mines definitely not fiberglass.

99xj4x4

I have the same problem with mine and It is extremely annoying. Just about all my interior rattles though.

esteem

ya ive gone as far as strapping a tie down to the handle inside the door to keep it from moving (completely enables the door from even opening). it didnt solve anything so im guessing the noise is coming from the actual hinge at the top

jarretthise

Hmm. My old jeep did this but it was coming from the bottom part where it closes. I guess it's another one of those "jeep things" that you just can't work out of them lol.

btraysxj

If you remove the interrior plastic cover on the hatch you can see the internal latch mechanism. Depending on the year you can adjust the threaded rod to remove the slop in the hatch latch. It may take a few attempts but it greatly limits how much rattle you get back there. Mine's a 2000 so I have a plastic clip that you pop open and pull the rod up a few threads then snap it shut.

The Naxja forum has a few good posts that cover all years so do a search on hatch rattle.

gclrick

I just did this adjustment today on my 98 gcl. I had to make two adjustments, first I moved the catch mounted on the cargo floor back, or towards the front of the jeep to hold the hatch tighter to the body. After doing this, I could not open the hatch because the mechanism was not opening fully when i pulled the handle. Removed the plastic trim, exposed the mechanism, removed the threaded rod out of the carrier, pulled the slack out and popped it back in. Hatch is now tight, no rattles and alot less road noise. Took all of 30 min.

esteem

some good ideas, I took mine apart and saw i need to replace the latching part but i might also do some other adjustments to make it tight as well