2000’s era door latch rattle

[Mike Tonon]

Hi, so my doors rattle on my 07 2-door regular cab. The hinges are almost perfectly tight (It’s not the hinges). The strikers don’t have a big plastic bushing, like the 1990’s and older Ford trucks, did. So every time I drive over bumps, I’m hearing knocking sounds from the metal striker on the latch. It’s done this probably since new. But now it does it more. I want to fix it. I played with the strikers years ago, moving them slightly inward and higher. That helped some. Although, I’m wondering if moving them higher, places them in an area where the top of the door latch opening taps against them going over bumps. The striker bars are about .310-.320 of an inch thick. The up to down area inside the latch is about .400 of an inch. Would centering these strikers stop them from touching the top and bottom of the latch assembly and stop the knocking noise? ...If not, I also thought about adding rubber, to where the side of the striker bar sits, further in the latch assembly. These have rubber and look similar, but are said to fit an F150 and NOT a Ranger.

https://www.fairwayfordparts.net/oem-parts/ford-striker-9l3z1522008a?origin=pla&gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi10pbBqmUXvoLXsCsfQV43azlif_QSPJH13BGqeV-FpBS9mMHsIIX7BoCh_sQAvD_BwE

But maybe they fit??

This is my drivers side striker...

 

[Mike Tonon]

Ok... I played around with it for while today. I glued some .064” rubber sheet on with weatherstrip adhesive. That didn’t seem to do much, but I did notice inside the latch was leaving marks on some of it. So it’s close. Then I added about 3 layers of electrical tape (not permanent, but just to see how much more material I’d need. The rattle is almost completely gone. Still does it slightly, if I hit a bump very hard.

What’s tricky about this, is that black plastic area inside the latch assembly, where the side of the striker (which is where I glued rubber) just slides in, isn’t the same thickness straight in. There’s a taper throughout at least half of it, as best as I can see in there, that’s what it looks like. I was trying to taper the rubber. But maybe just the same thickness throughout would work just as good. The noise seems to be from up/down movement, only. Not in/out movement.