Background
The 2004 Toyota Sienna developed popping noise in driver side door around 110,000 mile. Every time the driver side door opened to 75%, the door made a popping sound and the door jumped to full open. This was annoying and dangerous. Research showed this was caused by broken door check weld. Without fixing the problem, the door could slam shut when the van was in up-hill position, which potentially could cause body damager to driver.
Apparently this problem happened in a lot of Sienna vans with model year 2004 to 2007. Toyota had a warranty notice. If the van was under warranty, Toyota would fix the problem. Unfortunately, my van was out of warranty when this problem happened.
How to fix the door popping noise problem
JB-Weld Fix – did not work
The easiest way to try was super-glue. If super-glue could hold two pieces of metal together, that would fix the problem. JB-Weld 8265S claimed the highest holding power in the super glue shelf, which it stated 3,960 PSI. Even half inch of contact surface would hold 990 lb (3,960 PSI x 0.5 in x 0.5 in), which was more than enough. However, it did not work for more than a day even I tried to follow JB-Weld’s instruction as much as I could.
Use self-tapping screw to hold door check metal together
JB-Weld did not work. I had to figure out another way to fix the problem. Due to the limit space between the door jam and door, regular drill did not work. I purchased a 90 degree drill to drive a self tapping screw into the door check metal pieces. The power drill was less than $30. And it just took less than 10 minutes to drive a self tapping screw to the door. It worked faultless without any popping noise when door was opened.
Conclusion
If your car is still in warranty, ask Toyota to fix this problem. However, if your are is out of warranty, the fix is not hard either.