I just noticed that my front passenger side door panel looks different than the front driver side panel. So I took it off to make sure all of the retaining clips were in the right spots and to see if anything else looked off that would explain why this one panel doesn’t look right. See pics. The first two photos are of the door panel in question. The next two are of the driver’s door for comparison.



Notice how the top of the panel extends above the chrome finish on the door’s exterior. Looks wrong to me.

I also think the gap is larger here than on the other doors. Like the panel is not sitting all the way flush as it should.

Driver door for comparison.



Is this how it’s supposed to be? If not, any suggestions?

 

There are a couple of plastic locating pins that have to be guided carefully into their sockets when installing the panel or they will do exactly what your panel is doing, you can't just pop it in and bang in the perimeter fasteners and have it fit properly. Maybe they were already broken off from a previous repair.

 

Thanks. I am aware of one such pin located at the top center of the panel. It’s intact and best I can tell I have it inserted through the corresponding hole on the door itself. Do you know where any other such pins are supposed to be located on the door panel?

But backing up a bit, I wanna make sure I understand your response. Are you saying that the front passenger door panel should not look like it does in the first picture I posted?

 

Maybe there is only one locating pin per door panel, I replaced all the speakers front and rear a year or 2 ago. I found the rears a little harder to do.

Your panel definitely shouldn't look like that, you have to get the top of the panel in place first before securing the other clips around the door so you're probably going to have to take it off again to see what happened. Those green or white clips around the panel are in really tight and I broke a few removing the panels and got some from amazon but they have slightly larger heads so they will break again if they need to be replaced and then have to be dug out from the bottom of the door to avoid rattles. This is my passenger side panel.

 

You have a clip out of a place from the picture you sent, take it off and check everything again

 

thanks for the explanation and photo of yours, that is really helpful as I hadn’t seen a picture like that online. I have taken the panel off a few times now to try to figure this out, but to no avail. And I’ve been doing it the way you mentioned, starting with the top edge of the panel, ensuring all the screw threads lineup correctly, making sure all of my retaining clips are where they’re supposed to be and none are missing or broken, and only then pushing those retaining clips through the holes on the door frame. I will keep trying, I must be missing something. Thanks for weighing in, it’s appreciated 👍🏼

 

Will do appreciate it

 

Whenever one side is different from another that's a big clue. Build quality is exceptionally strong on this car, compared to anything I've ever come across including brand new flagships. Generally if it looks off, it probably is.

 

I found some pics of the speaker swap and I think you don't have the rear upper section of the door panel installed properly over the ridge of the inner door that I put the red line on, I remember getting that and the locating pin lined up at the same time took a few minutes.

 

awesome I will take extra care in that area when I get back out in the garage tonight. Thanks!

 

So I discovered the reason why my panel won’t sit properly as seen in my picture. Part of it has to do with a bent and damaged inner belt weather strip (68171-50010) for that door. I’ve ordered that part. The other reason is because of damage to one of the plastic areas along the top of the door panel (there are four of them, evenly spaced, and they are female types that you are to insert the metal clips that attach to the inner belt weatherstrip I mention above).

looks like whoever put the door panel on last time got a little rough with it and didn’t have the clip aligned properly before pounding the door panel on so it tore that plastic female area apart. Thus, the metal clip closest to the side view mirror will no longer securely clip into place (and hold there).

I wish I had a photo to attach but I can’t find one and I want to take my door panel off yet again and risk breaking something else. Other than replacing the entire door panel anyone have any ideas on rectifying this issue? I was thinking about using plastic bond by JB Weld to essentially rebuild that plastic female portion of the door panel, but that will be quite a messy and time-consuming project that ultimately might not even hold up.

But buying a new door panel is a bit much given that mine is in great shape other than that one little area.

 

For reference, I’ve circled the broken area that I’m talking about (photos are not mine, found them on a different thread on here).