GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

2006 Toyota Matrix here. Just bought it and realized the front door checks are practically useless. New ones are $40/piece or more. I decided to try and refurbish mine. Took them out of the doors (easy) and took them to my bench. Opened up the metal box. That took some rotary tool magic, it was not meant to be opened Inside were some rubber blocks that were supposed to exert pressure on the strap, kind of pinching it. The rubber has compressed and was therefore not providing the pinching force. The rubber blocks were only compressed in one direction from sitting in the same position. Rotating the rubber blocks 90 degrees makes them sit in the box with the sides that were not squished and provide plenty of pinching force. I then cut some tabs in the cover so as to be able to close the box up and put the whole thing back together. Put them back in the car and I now have working door checks!

Here are the pictures.

More pictures.

nice macguyvering. there is a honda door check that works...somewhere on the FB group Gary George mentions them.

Thanks a lot, vferdman!
That's an excelent piece of hacking! Also kudos for the excelent pictures and posting them directly to the board rather than linking to a hosting site.
This post is now listed in the Maintenance Bay's The New Great How To Index: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=44875

I realize there is a Honda part that will work. Supposedly, it's a better made part and cost less. I have searched and found Honda P/N 72380-SNE-A01. I think it can be had for about $15 on some of the discount online Honda dealers. That is a very good deal and I would say that most people would opt for that rather than my method which involves some (basic) tools and some (basic) skills. Still, even after the refurbish, the checks just do not feel all that great, though they definitely have stops and resistance now. I think it's just the way Toyota doors feel by design on these cars. I have a 2007 Prius and it has exactly the same door check on it and it also feels kind of flimsy, though not like the Matrix did before the fix. After the fix the Matrix feels better than the Prius, so it may be time to do the Prius ones also. Or perhaps I will try the Honda part.

Note. I have seen somewhere that these door checks are different from right to left. That does not appear to be the case. There is a stamp on the strap that says "F" "space" "R" on one side and when you flip it, it says "F" "space" "L". These are the same part for left and right. You just need to flip them to the correct side for each door.

Thanks for the tip on the Honda part!
Found it on Amazon for $10 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PSM4MCD

Installed it yesterday into my 2006 Vibe and it is a perfect fit.