Those little plastic bits on car door frames
Jonathan Tong
protrusions sticking out from the front of front-door frames on
some cars. They are about halfway up the door frame. There doesn't
seem to be much consistency in what car they are on, but only seem
to be found on newer cars.
Are they some weird aerodynamic thingywotsit? What are they [for]?
Befuddled,
Jonathan
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Al Grant
> I've noticed with increasing frequency, little (often plastic-like)
> protrusions sticking out from the front of front-door frames on
> some cars. They are about halfway up the door frame. There doesn't
> seem to be much consistency in what car they are on, but only seem
> to be found on newer cars.
>
> Are they some weird aerodynamic thingywotsit? What are they [for]?
They're called "wing mirrors" and are for seeing behind you.
Jon S Green
> I've noticed with increasing frequency, little (often plastic-like)
> protrusions sticking out from the front of front-door frames on
> some cars. They are about halfway up the door frame. There doesn't
> seem to be much consistency in what car they are on, but only seem
> to be found on newer cars.
>
> Are they some weird aerodynamic thingywotsit? What are they [for]?
I think they're probably window glass guides. When you're travelling at
speed, the airflows are such that low-pressure zones develop on parts of
the outside of the window glass. If you've your window partly open,
this has the effect of trying to pull the window glass outwards. The
little wedge-shaped things partway down the leading edge of the
doorframe guide the glass back into the frame for when you're closing
the window at speed.
At least I _believe_ that's what they're for.
Jon
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Roland Perry
<jonath...@cambridge.arm.com> writes
>Are they some weird aerodynamic thingywotsit? What are they [for]?
If it's on the front of the doorframe it's to assist the window staying 'inside'
the doorframe as it winds up. For aerodynamic reasons, the windows are now
very near the edge of the car and there's very little doorframe left to do the
job of locating the glass.
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Roland Perry
Vicky Larmour
>I think they're probably window glass guides. When you're travelling at
>speed, the airflows are such that low-pressure zones develop on parts of
>the outside of the window glass. If you've your window partly open,
>this has the effect of trying to pull the window glass outwards. The
>little wedge-shaped things partway down the leading edge of the
>doorframe guide the glass back into the frame for when you're closing
>the window at speed.
Sounds plausible. I have a friend who has a car with one of the earlier
implementations of electric windows. You can't close the window if you're
driving at more than about 50 mph.
Vicky
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mkil...@arm.com
jo...@nojunk.harlequin.co.uk (Jon S Green) wrote:
>
> > I've noticed with increasing frequency, little (often plastic-like)
> > protrusions sticking out from the front of front-door frames on
> > some cars.
>
> ..... The
> little wedge-shaped things partway down the leading edge of the
> doorframe guide the glass back into the frame for when you're closing
> the window at speed.
>
Err, you appear to be talking about the DOOR, not the DOORFRAME. The window
glass fits in the door. The door fits into the doorframe. The point 'about
halfway up the doorframe' is on the car body, not the door. Where exactly?
below the height of the wing mirror?
Without a less ambiguous description of the object we're discussing, I can
only imagine that the protusion is a there to plug a hole in the body panel.
The only need for a hole in the body at that point would be an access point
for the innards of the doorframe? Maybe access to the switch that controls
the courtesy light, a switch that can wear out easily? I would have thought
it was removable via the doorframe, though.
The other possibility would be hole for an optional side-mounted indicator
light. Older cars had these because the front and rear indicators weren't
corner wrap-around lenses as they have these days, so weren't so visible
from a side-on viewpoint.
Michael
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Jon S Green
> In article <361d72c8...@newshost.cam.harlequin.co.uk>,
> jo...@nojunk.harlequin.co.uk (Jon S Green) wrote:
> > ..... The
> > little wedge-shaped things partway down the leading edge of the
> > doorframe guide the glass back into the frame for when you're closing
> > the window at speed.
>
> Err, you appear to be talking about the DOOR, not the DOORFRAME. The window
> glass fits in the door. The door fits into the doorframe. The point 'about
> halfway up the doorframe' is on the car body, not the door. Where exactly?
> below the height of the wing mirror?
OK, fair comment. I was referring to the part of the door that wraps
around the window. Perhaps I meant the window frame, but that sounds a
bit too much like double glazing :).
Jonathan Tong
Ok, for the pedants around (MTK), what I *should* have said was
something like (in reference to the location of the plastic-like
protrusions): They are located approximately halfway up the window
frame, only on front car doors, on the side closest to the front.
Put another way, imagine a clock centred on the drivers window
(and you're stood outside), it would be at about 2:30.
Guiding windows as you wind them seems plausable, though some of
them on closer inspection couldn't be doing that much "guiding" if
at all.
J
sbrabou...@gmail.com
I still could not find in the Internet any plausible reasons for those things. " window alignment guides" doesn't buy it. In Brazil, there were never a single car ever having those tabs. I have never had any car with "window alignment problems" during whatever speed I was while closing the window, and I already had more than ten different cars at different price ranges, big and small from many regional manufacturers such as GM, VW and Fiat.
I'm still expecting to see a auto manufact. reply for what are those things.
Air/rain/noise deflector also don't buy me.