Power Sliding Door Issue - 2002 T&C

[vox87]

2002 Chrysler Town and Country Power sliding door won't close. Appears the latch on the back of the door is in a "closed" state, instead of an open one; which is preventing the door from fully closing on the buckle. Oddly enough, when activating the door from a full open position (or any position), it never tries to close. It only wants to open. Plus, upon each attempt in activating the door, it slides back about an 1" or 2" and then makes a loud clicking noise (like a turn signal, about 6 clicks). Never does a full (open or close) slide when activated The other sliding door works fine. Appreciate any advice.

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[Raptor 07]

People have more dam problems with these doors. Ought to rip them off the tracks, slap a couple of big gate hinges on the back and be done with it. Anyway...

I've never worked on them. Hope I never have to because from what I've been reading of them for several years led me to the previous stated fix. I will pass this info on. Maybe you can glean something out of this and come up with a course of action. There's two parts; Adjustments and Electrical

One thing I can add to all of this is the wire harness in the track at the bottom of the door has been giving plenty of people fits creating all sorts of door problems. Door problems and problems in various other systems to the point Chrysler recalled many 2010(?) minivans due to this harness causing fires. There is a video on youtube that describes how to access and repair it. Head there and type "Caravan sliding door". I'd post it here but I'm betting I'll get chewed on for posting this War and Peace of a post as it is.

SLIDING DOOR ADJUSTMENTS
NOTE: For power sliding door procedures refer to POWER SLIDING DOOR SYSTEM in the ELECTRICAL section.

PRELIMINARY CHECKS
Close the sliding door, visually checking C-post striker alignment entry into latch. Striker at this point must not affect alignment. Striker should go straight into the latching mechanism.
On vehicles with left sliding doors, check the fuel door blocker striker entry into latch. Striker at this point must not affect alignment.
Check C-post and B-post for door to aperture gaps and door to door gaps. All gaps should be 5 mm ± 1 mm.
Check door for height using character lines as a reference. Also check roof contour as a controlling factor.
Using the procedures noted below, adjust the side door in the order the individual steps are called out.

DOOR FLUSHNESS ADJUSTMENT
Check sliding door flushness at the C-pillar striker.
Adjust the C-pillar striker in or out until the door is flush.
Check upper B-pillar flushness to A-pillar cover.
Loosen one nut on upper hinge and adjust door in or out until the door is flush.
Check flushness at upper C-pillar.
If upper C-pillar flushness is out of specification use a heavy rubber mallet on the door assembly until door is in specifications.
DOOR GAP ADJUSTMENT - UP/DOWN
Visually inspect the sliding door for fitting low at the top of the door by checking the alignment of the top contour of the door to the quarter panel.
Fully open the sliding door.
Verify that all center hinge bolts are tight.
Adjust the rear of the sliding door up by turning the center hinge bolt clockwise (SLIDING DOOR CENTER HINGE).
Close the door and check the sliding door alignment.
Adjust the front of the sliding door up by adjusting lower hinge bolts.
Open door half way and remove lower hinge bolt access plug.
Loosen bolts as necessary to move the front of door up or down.
Check the upper hinge for possible bind, adjust as necessary.
Close the door and check the sliding door alignment.
Fully open door and apply thread lock nut onto the center hinge bolt. Tighten nut until till it butts up against the welded nut on the center hinge. Tighten nut to 15 N·m (130 in. lbs.). It may be necessary to hold the center hinge bolt to prevent it from turning while tightening nut.
Verify alignment, adjust as necessary.
DOOR GAP ADJUSTMENT - FORE/AFT
Check height of sliding door at the B-post and C-post to determine which area is contributing the greatest to the incorrect gaps.
If the sliding door is high at the C-post;
Open the door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of center hinge on sliding door to assist in making adjustments.
Loosen center hinge bolts (SLIDING DOOR CENTER HINGE).
Move hinge fore or aft to position the sliding door into the correct location.
Tighten center hinge bolts.
Verify alignment, adjust as necessary.
If the sliding door is low at the B-post;
Remove access plug in the sliding door trim panel.
Open the door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of lower roller arm bracket on sliding door to assist in making adjustments.
Loosen lower roller arm bracket bolts (SLIDING DOOR LOWER ROLLER ARM).
Move hinge downward to raise the door.
Tighten lower roller arm bracket bolts.
Verify alignment, adjust as necessary.
If the sliding door is low at the C-post;
Open the door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of center hinge on sliding door to assist in making adjustments.
Adjust the adjustment bolt up or down to move the door position. (SLIDING DOOR CENTER HINGE).
Move hinge downward to raise the door.
Tighten center hinge bolts.
Verify alignment adjust as necessary.
If the sliding door is high at the B-post;
Remove access plug in the sliding door trim panel.
Open the door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of lower roller arm bracket on sliding door to assist in making adjustments.
Loosen lower roller arm bracket bolts (SLIDING DOOR LOWER ROLLER ARM).
Move hinge upward to raise the door.
Tighten lower roller arm bracket bolts.
Verify alignment, adjust as necessary.
DOOR SEAL COMPRESSION
First check Gap & Flush. Check seal compression near the middle of the door even with the latch assembly. Using a piece of paper, place it across door seal and close door. Pull paper out of door opening. If paper tears setting is to tight, if paper slides thought to easily the compression is insufficient and needs to be adjusted.
Adjust seal compression at the top of the B-post seal;
Open door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of upper roller arm on door to assist in making adjustments.
Loosen bolts attaching upper roller arm to door (SLIDING DOOR UPPER STOP).
Decrease the length of the upper roller arm to increase seal compression.
Increase the length of the upper roller arm to decrease seal compression.
Tighten all upper roller arm bolts.
Verify door alignment, adjust as necessary.
Adjust seal compression at the bottom of B-post seal.
Open door to mid-point of travel.
Mark outline of lower roller arm on lower roller arm bracket to assist in making adjustments (Sliding Door Lower Roller Arm).
Loosen bolts holding lower roller arm to lower roller arm bracket.
Pivot lower roller arm toward center of vehicle to decrease seal compression.
Pivot lower roller arm outward to increase seal compression.
Tighten lower roller arm bolts.
Verify alignment, adjust as necessary.
NOTE: Adjusting seal compression at the B-post can affect door flushness the C-post.

ELECTRICAL

Look on the bottom of the distribution cover and post what fuse relay is missing. Sound like you have multiple problems. Here is some info on fuses relays and how the sliding doors work. You will see lots of different things could go wrong with hatch and sliding doors.

try moving the sliding door fuse


How doors work

[vox87]

Thanks Raptor. A lot of good info. I'll post my fix, when I tackle that door today.

[kdm3170]

theres a couple tsbs on the doors n hatch not working right, says they need to be reflashed

[vonoretn]

Raptor, thanks for all that good information. This morning I went through the logic of why did the left door work a couple times than not again? I thought what if there is extra resistance in the mechanical process of just closing the door, and the door computer module thinks that it is hitting a child? So I ran the left door with the remote, but also I was pushing slightly on the door to give it assistance. And it went through a full cycle of motor driven opening, assisted in both direction. So then I got down by the wheel that rotates in the lower track, and I greased the heck out of everything in the area. And now the left door works every time!

But I tried the same technique on the right door and it had no impact. But that's to be expected since the right door track motor is clearly never running. The locking/docking motor does run. So I am back to plan A, open up the left door and switch out the track motor and the computer module with the right door and try to isolate the problem.

I'll keep people updated as I progress. I already checked the track wires on the right side, they are all good. So is the track clutch coil (14 ohm), and the motor little transmission. I think the motor is just not being activated. The six wires going to it make it a challenge to diagnose.

[vonoretn]

I now fixed 1 out of 2 sliding doors on the T&C. But I am smarter on the situation. The left door is working good now. I greased all three door tracks, the lower, the upper and the rear. With the inside plastic door panel off of both doors, removed the motors, (4 accessable bolts and a wire connector plus pull the clip out of the cable attachment with a small hook). To get the manual sliding effort down, with the black end of the motor off, (need a #20 star bit), put light oil or WD40 in the 4 little square holes between the round plates. Then make sure you can get relative motion there by hand. When the clutch is activated, that oil is by far overcome by the electromagnetic force, and the clutch will engage. To check your coil for function check it with an ohm meter ($4 at Harbor Freight when on sale). It should read about 14 ohms. It pulls about .91 amps when activated with 12 volts. It is very strong, and will lock those two plates even after oiling them.

Also with the cable rotating by slightly sliding door with it disconnected from the motor, I put some cable oil (light oil) in the motor end of the cable, and worked it in. This also should lower the friction on the whole system and help with manual door opening effort.

After the left door was working, I switched the left and right electronic modules. No change, the left door still worked the right one didn't. Then I switched the motors left to right. No change, the left door still worked, the right one didn't. The right wire track is good, continuity on all the wires.

What the right one does is it churns the rear latching motor 3 times, trying to get the door latched or or unlatched, then gives up. The right cable drive motor never turns on.

Remember to unhook the battery when you are assembling and disassembling any electrical component. Only hook it up again for testing. I had to keep a small charge monitor on it since testing the doors pulls significant current.

But I have yet to solve the right door problem. If anyone has any ideas for the next step, I could use some help. I have returned the left and right motors and modules to their original locations. I noticed that the left and right modules have slightly different Chrysler part numbers, so they may be subtly different, for reacting to slightly different circumstances. You can buy used but warranted modules on Ebay for about $60. Apparently I don't need one.