This was first discussed in May by JSG (an owner in Japan) here. I did not see any other mention of it until today...

My passenger door will not close correctly. My drivers door always closes fine but using the same force my passenger door will partially latch and never close fully. I have to use perhaps 3x the force (really slam it HARD) to make the passenger door close - and it is repeatable as I once stood there and tried this 20 times in a row with the same results. As I rarely carry any passengers this door issue has not been very important, but since last week more people are traveling in my RX-8 and it is getting irritating for us to have to slam the passenger door 4-5 times after every trip.

I know that not all cars are effected with this - one car I test drove had the issue, another was fine on both doors. I assume it is door alignment and will get it looked at next week. I doubt it is internal air pressure as the driver's door never has a problem. Anybody else experiencing this?

 

Just take it back to your dealer and get it fixed under warranty ... I had the same problem with my Mazda Xedos 6 and it's been fine ever since

 

Mine will do it occasionally -- I have learned to alter my door closing technique a little. I have found that if I just keep my hand on the door until it is closed (same force as normal door) it closes with no problem. If I just push and release then it will sometimes not close all the way. I did check with window open (to see if pressure was the issue) and the doors will close fine -- so I think my issue is not alignment but cabin pressure.

 

I posted this before, I have the same issue.

My girlfriend gets pissed off, because she ALWAYS has to open and close it a second time. The driver door closes easily.

Now I was thinking it WAS air pressure (but as you stated the driver door doesn't do it). BUT if the windows are open there is no problem closing the passenger door! Or if the drivers door is open the passenger door closes no problem.

If they do adjust and fix this let me know, I'll get mine done. It's annoying.

So far on my lists of fixes are:
1. Floor mats (waiting for these to do anything)
2. Rattle in driver door / mirror
3. hp j/k
4. this door thing.

If they can't fix the rattle by oct 1st the car is going back, I HATE rattles!

 

Good idea to try closing the door with the window cracked open. The last car I saw which was this airtight was our VW beetle when I was a kid. I doubt the RX-8 will float, though.

We usually had to open a window to pull the door shut from inside the VW.

 

my last car I would close the door so gently
This car the door almost has to be slammed on both sides

 

I have exactly this problem. Being relatively new to the forum, I am amazed that others are having it too. (You always think you're somehow special.) I could buy the air pressure thing except that, as everyone else has noticed, it's only the passenger side, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And it's incredibly annoying.

 

How was your car fixed for this ailment?

 

Maybe the car leans ever so slightly to the right, and you're working against some gravity? :D

 

After reading these posts I had to go out and check mine. I noticed the few times I have had passengers they had to close the door a couple of times to get it shut. It requires what I call a follow-through as was mentioned in another post. The drivers door will bounce sometimes but not as much as the passenger door. Both doors work better if you follow through with your closing action keeping your hand on the door. It still requires a bit more force on the passenger side. It sounds like BS now but it makes sense that the doors could be an issue with this car by the nature of thier design.

My totally unscientific theory on this is that the driver door gets more attention at PDI and factory by the very nature that it is the drivers door. My guess it that if proper attention was paid to the passenger door there would be no difference.

I do not know what I am going to do for sure yet but as these little problems keep popping up the bye back looks better and better.

 

I've had people in the back seats but have not noticed the rear door closing difficulty at all. However, I have noticed that the front doors require more force to close than I was used to with any of my previous cars. Personally, I like the air tightness that this indicates. But if I had the rear door problem, I would be a little irritated.

You know, you wouldn't think it would have anything to do with air pressure, since the front door is open while you're trying to close the rear. Weird problem.

 

Nobody is talking about the rear freestyle doors No issue with those -- talking about front doors -- specifically the passenger door "bounce".

 

9 times out of 10, a problem with a door being hard to shut is related to the windows being raised too high.

If you are experiencing this problem, close the door slowly -- examine where the top of the window joins with the body. Odds are there is a hard piece of rubber trim that the window is catching on, making it difficult to close.

Workaround: After rolling up the windows, tap the open button so they go down a hair.
Fix: Adjust the window stops to factory specs.

 

Ummm but the window on the RX-8 is part of the door..... Not like a coupe that has no frame around the window.

 

Oh, my bad. Sorry!



Now that I've actually read and understood the above posts, I'm completely blown away. I mean, the doors are tighter than any other car I've had, but no one has any real trouble closing them. Maybe we Virginia folk just slam doors by habit.

 

My wife and I noticed it too.
There is no problem closing the drivers side door, but the passenger side needs about twice as much force.
It has NOTHING to do with the windows, as we noticed it several times this weekend with both front windows fully lowered.
It is not so bad as tobe a major problem, just another irritant factor.