My driver side window has a lot of side to side play in it when fully up and the door is open, whereas my passenger side window virtually has zero side to side movement. As a result, I believe it is responsible for some air leakage coming through on the upper leading edge of the window, which is rather annoying once I reach freeway speeds. Also a small amount of water may slowly drip through through at freeway speeds if it's raining hard. Because of the play, the window also doesn't seal properly once in a while when I close the door with the windows up. The window will end up on the outside of the upper rubber seal instead of inside of it, leaving a gap of about 1/2" at the upper rear of the window where it meets the car. The same thing can happen if someone else closes the other door or the back hatch with all the windows up, the overpressure will sometimes pop the driver side window to the outside of the seal.

It's not a huge deal, but I've lived with this for a long time now because I didn't want to take my door apart or have someone else take my door apart, primarily for fear of something rattling when the job is done (nothing in my car rattles or squeaks at this point and I very much want to keep it that way). May seem like a silly fear, but that seems to be the most common thread among older cars, annoying little rattles and squeaks from some broken clip, loose screw, etc. etc.. I also live in So-Cal, so rain isn't much of a problem and more often than not my windows are down and/or my top is off.

Bottom line, how do I go about fixing the side to side play in the window, and how difficult is it? This isn't something I intend to do myself, I'm busted up from a skydiving accident, but I want to know exactly what's involved before I allow someone else to do this, and what the estimated labor might be.

TIA!

 

Bump

 

You can adjust the window without taking the door panel off. Pop off the reflector on the bottom of the door and you will find an adjustment nut. Then at the very bottom of the hinge edge of the door, you will find a rubber plug. Remove it and find another adjustment nut. loosen the first one, then loosen the under door one and you will see that it moves in or out. Moving it to the outside of the door moves the window inward. You can actually get it to move quite a bit. Play with it until the window seals tightly and then retighten both nuts. The one under the reflector does not adjust, but secures it after the adjustment.

 

You rock, thanks. Hopefully I'll be able to resolve the problem. Maybe the nut behind the reflector is loose, causing the window to have so much play in it (and it rattles a little bit going over reflectors in the road). The reflector just pops right off and back on, no clips or anything? Do I just use a flathead screwdriver or something, and pop it back on with my hands? Just don't want to break anything, and I want to make sure I can get it back on if I take it off.

Again, TIA!

 

Yes.. small flat head screw driver. You won't mess anything up. Pops right off. Pry on bottom.