My driver's side door seal was coming apart, so I replaced it with a new seal from Rock Auto. Once I put the new seal on and shut the door, I realized it doesn't actually seal against the body. I can see daylight through the door in several places. Anyone else experience this?

Here is a look over my shoulder, with the door completely closed. The wind noise is terrible.



Here's the OEM seal on the left, held up against the new seal, which has been installed. The old seal looks slightly bigger than the new one.



The install was pretty easy and hard to mess up; the seal would only go on one way. I'm pretty confident this isn't a user install error. I'm not sure if I should be contacting Rock Auto or Omix-Ada about this, but I can't leave it open like this.

 

It's fairly common on a lot of vehicles actually.. It's usually caused by tweaked window frames. Place a 2x4 in the door and push on the window frame slowly to bend it in slightly. Obviously have the window down. As scary as that sounds, that's how most body shops do it.

 

I'm guessing the old seal didn't function either, has the vehicle been in a wreck?
Post pics of the door gaps both sides as well as the hood.

 

I know my drivers door doesn't seal now, the wind yanked it out of my hand. Did anything like that happen to you?

 

The door gaps are really hard to photograph, but it's not making contact across the top or the entire rear side of the door. I can't see the bottom of the seal with the door closed. The OEM seal did make contact all around, but had started to come apart at the bottom from being twenty years old, which is why I replaced it. The doors line up perfectly from the outside, so I really don't want to try bending the window frame.

The Jeep had a minor fender bender when it was relatively new, but it was on the passenger side and didn't touch any of the doors. The hinges have never been hyper extended and I'm telling you guys everything looked fine before this seal went on.

 

I don't know from experience but I recall reading that the seals work for 97-01 better and for the older xj's people have put rope around the inside of the seal so it would be slightly larger. Like where the seal is folded on itself. Get some maybe 1/2" rope or so. Forgot the actual size that they used.

 

Return that crap, and get yours from Team Cherokee. I got mine from them and they fit great. I have a 94 Cherokee.

Here is the link for the door seals:
http://teamcherokee.com/door-to-body...che-1984-1996/

 

I picked up some newer door seals ('97) from the junkyard and found them to fit really poorly on my '93. I had to adjust the door outwards so that the door did not line up flush with the rear doors in order not to have to slam the door so hard to get it to latch. I think the newer seals are too puffy for the older body. Perhaps the original person who suggested this upgrade got a pair of beat up seals from the junkyard that were already compressed a bunch.

Sorry to hear you have bad luck with new seals. Did you see the other brand on RockAuto, Fairchild? I am looking at getting new door seals and would buy from Fairchild over Omix-Ada any day. I've been seriously let down by Omix parts before.

 

I already said the OP should get them from Team Cherokee (Team 4WD) as they will fit you Jeep well. No need for trial and error with inferior stuff, just get the good weatherstripping. It is only $24 a door, or $100 for all 4 doors, with shipping the total is only $107.

 

Well don't you think Team Cherokee has to be getting them from somewhere else... they don't make door seals and the ones they list aren't MOPAR parts either.

 

I did find a place online that claims to have NOS Mopar door seals. They cost twice as much, but might be worth the investment.

 

I bought the same ones that you did from Quadratec. (I didn't think team Cherokee had them for some reason). And I am having the same seal issue as well. Same gap. Super bummed out about it. My door however is a little off (splitting at the hinges) so I'm not sure if that has something to do with my gap or not.. I have thought about removing it and trying it on a different door (rear maybe?) to see if its the seal itself or if its the location but haven't gotten around it to yet.

 

Could do what I did on my 95 and my girlfriends 98.. Get some 3M mushroom door seals with adhesive on one side and stick it to the door side, it gives a double seal and I have had any wind noise or a drop of water get in for 3 years.

 

Got a link? At work at the moment so I could only do a quick search and only found the velcro strips that snap together when googling 3m mushroom seal