Door Drop

[lurch]

I know more than one of you has had to do this before, but I haven’t been able to find a thread on it.

My drivers door (S3) has dropped slightly at the lock end of the door so it does not shut as easily as it should, and it has been creaking from the hinge end, so I reckon it’s time to sort it out.

I have followed the instructions in the bible on how to get the door trim off without too many problems. Having done that I am now stumped on how to (effectively) adjust it. I cannot see the hinges very easily so have been trying to feel my way around, not easy with big hands. I have given things a good greasing, and this seems to have stopped the hinges creaking, but does not get to the source of the problem.

In the absence of a chapter and verse in my bible, can any one give me some guidance on how to go about doing it?

Cheers
Sam

[GreenV8S]

Take out the front window runner (two bolts through the bottom of the door, and a few screws through the top/front of the door. There is one top hinge and one bottom hinge. Each hinge consists of a sleeve bolted to the door, and a large bolt through the sleeve into a threaded bobbin glassed into the body. To adjust the door, slacken the bolts securing one of the sleeves, and carefully pull up/down on the back edge of the door to get the alignment you want. Carefull not to bash the door against the opening when you do this as it will damage the paint. Well worth greasing the pivot bolts and checking for tightness while you're in their as they have a habit of seizing to the sleeve and working loose from the body. Tighten up, refit window runner, refit trim, pat self on back. Getting the trim panel off is by far the hardest part of this job!

[Colin BlueS2]

Hi

I had a look at this the other week as I wanted to adjust my door. I got the trim off OK and found the bolts but I couldn't work out how the adjustment worked. I couldn't get the outer bolts to move and didn't want to wreck the hinge so I've given it a good spraying with WD40 to see if that helps and I'll try again. Any other tips you have to loosen off the bolts?

Does slackening off the two outside bolts allow the sleeve to move laterally? How do you adjust the vertical position is that through tightening and loosening the pivot bolt?

Thanks

Colin

[GreenV8S]

Colin BlueS2 said:

Does slackening off the two outside bolts allow the sleeve to move laterally?

Yes, there's enough play to move the sleeve a few mil in any direction.

Colin BlueS2 said:

How do you adjust the vertical position is that through tightening and loosening the pivot bolt?

You can pick the back of the door up just by loosening the mounting bolts for one or both sleeves and pulling the back of the door up. The front of the door isn't directly adjustable up and down, although there are spaces between the door and the body; if these have been removed the vertical position would be out. Would be surprised if the front of the door was out though, normally the problem is only that the rear of the door has dropped and you can correct this as described above.

[lurch]

Thanks for the pointers. I'll have a go. Good to hear I've already done the hard bit.

[Le TVR]

Small tip: Put some ballast weight inside the door when realigning the hinges. Otherwise you may find that the door sags when you re-fit all the frame and trim and the process needs to be done again.

If you've got the trim off once, you dont want to have to do it again....

[yellabelly]

Guys,
The attached photos might help, I replaced the bolt on my passenger door lower hinge as it squeeked. However the pivot bolt was badly corroded which made it difficult to remove so I took the whole assembly out and ended up drifting the bolt out. You may see the corrosion build up on the bolt.
The best way is to undo the two nuts first then the pivot bolt, be careful if it is tight as you may rip the lower threaded portion out of the door sill. Take your time and copious amounts of WD40.
I would suggest you use copaslip on the bolt threads and shank when you re-assemble it.

The upper assembly is the same but with a shorter pivot bolt, on mine it was free so I re-greased it just to be safe.

[lurch]

Spent all of sat afternoon doing this with some considerable help, and after numerous line up attempts have succeeded in making it worse.

I've decided to let David Batty at The Garage sort it out when it goes in for it's MOT in a week or so.

Hmmmphh.

[Podie]

lurch said:

I've decided to let David Batty at The Garage sort it out when it goes in for it's MOT in a week or so. Hmmmphh.

How much is he asking to sort it out...?

Mine will be over there from the 22nd... might see you there?

[heathyboy]

This may seem like a totally stupid statement and I'm sure you would have noticed anyway but....

I thought I had this problem recently when my drivers door was not closing properly and seemed to have dropped a little causing the paint to rub off on the inside door panel.

All that was wrong was the rubber seal by the door hinge had come away from its housing and was trapped under the front of the door (by the bonnet release lever). This forced the opposite end of the door to push down and appear like it had dropped. Popped the seal back in and the door now closes level.

If that's not it - pretend I didn't say anything