Car door won't close tight

[dragoncar]

It sounds surprising that this would happen without some kind of damage to the door.  If all bolts and screws are tight, I'd guess only bent metal would cause such a problem.  Sorry I don't have suggestions besides trying to determine how the left and right doors are different

[Mountaineer]

I used to have a car (probably 30 or 40 years ago) that had adjustable door latch plates - you could loosen the screws that held the car body side and move the striker plate just slightly.  I have no idea if modern cars still have that type of adjustable latch.  If so, perhaps you have a screw loose? 

... M

Edit:  Honda latch assembly

I did not look at all the pictures - maybe something there will help.

[Mountaineer]

Thanks, Mountaineer!

For some reason or other (well, the root cause is probably that I'm not inherently a mechanically-minded fellow), my initial inspection focused on the door and not the latch plate.

So I did indeed have a screw loose on the latch plate.  Two of them in fact!

You are welcome.  Did that fix the issue?

... M

[Mountaineer]

Thanks, Mountaineer!

For some reason or other (well, the root cause is probably that I'm not inherently a mechanically-minded fellow), my initial inspection focused on the door and not the latch plate.

So I did indeed have a screw loose on the latch plate.  Two of them in fact!

You are welcome.  Did that fix the issue?

Yes!  It wasn't even a matter of adjusting the latch plate.  The problem was literally that the screws holding in the plate were loose, so the plate was just sort of jiggly.  Tightened the screws up, and all the symptoms are gone (dome light now goes off, dash indicator doesn't show door as open).  Well, there are a couple more symptoms that my wife will verify their absence when she drives the car later today, but I suspect the problem has been solved. Thanks again!

Great!  Glad it worked.

... M