I just bought this 2003 and it appears that the drivers side door has been disassembled and put back together rather poorly. It needed the upper plastic clips as the inner panel just rested in place and when the door was shut it would separate from the door itself (at the top). What has me concerned is a part Haynes refers to as the nutsert. It is a cone shaped rubber bumper that acts as a spacer between the panel and door. It is held in place by a screw that threads in through the door handle backing plate. Someone replaced this with a particularly long screw that goes completly through the tip of this cone shaped thing by at least 1/2" if not more. Is this normal, or could the end of the screw come in contact with the glass? I can’t get the screw out at present (the nutsert just spins when I try to back the screw out. The window is up and I am afraid to lower it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would get this looked at by a local body shop. It’s probably not going to be very expensive to get this taken care of.
You should be able to hold the “nutsert” with a pair of pliars, vicegrips, or perhaps even a very large screwdriver. You may have to stop at teh toolstore and get one that’s angled at 45 degrees, 90 degrees, is a needlenose, or aome one of the countless other variations. I even custom-bent one for one of my own specific applications.
Someone apparentl y installed the incorrect “nutsert”. It should self-retain when turning the screw. Fortunately, there are countless varienties of self-retaining nuts and nutplates available on the open market. Don’t be shy about using a different type.
Agree with “bike”, someone either used the wrong nutsert, the wrong screw, or both. I would replace with a new one. Cheap part, probably only a couple bucks. Your auto body supply store or a good hardware store should carry them.