Discussion
the drivers door has dropped about 3mm in the last couple of days, and the door lock is starting to rub on the striker plate on the car body, I have read the bible but it doesn`t seem very clear on how the door can be raised, and the hinge arrangment looks different to the S set up that I have previously been used to, any advice greatly appreciated.
Each hinge bolts to the body via 3 bolts. These are unlikely to move unless disturbed - but they do (arguably) provide for the easiest adjustment of hinge angle. However they won't take up play in the hinge itself. The real problem is that the hinge pivots are in fact bolts. These should rotate too and fro with the door opening and closing, but inevitably they get stuck in either the 'to' or 'fro' position, only to rotate again when the door is moved 'fro' or 'to' repectively. The net result is that the hinge pivot bolts gradually undo themselves and the play in the (undone) hinge bushes leads to the door dropping.
As stated previously it's a real pain getting a socket on the bottom pin (top's not so bad) and if it's rusted up at all you'll have a devil of a job shifting it.
Once I freed and adjusted mine correctly I put a dab of sikaflex on the exposed hinge pivot bolt thread in the door shut to (hopefully) hold the bolt form undoing itself. Time will tell...
As stated previously it's a real pain getting a socket on the bottom pin (top's not so bad) and if it's rusted up at all you'll have a devil of a job shifting it.
Once I freed and adjusted mine correctly I put a dab of sikaflex on the exposed hinge pivot bolt thread in the door shut to (hopefully) hold the bolt form undoing itself. Time will tell...
It wasn`t to bad a job, removed the door and carpet panel, and have to remove the aluminium window guide, just unbolt it and leave it inside the door to give access to the door hinge bolts.
these were done up quite tight, so I pulled back the carpet to reveal the hinge mounting bolts inside the car, and just slightly slackened these off to enable me to lift or lower the door without it feeling to loose.
then sit on the ground with your legs under the door to try and achieve the right hieght reqiured, and tighten the bolts back up, this may have to be repeated to try and judge the correct amount of lift needed, but the most time consuming part is adjusting the locking bar which is bolted to the door, to align correctly with the lock itself, as if it is not just right you will feel the door rub when you close it, or when you open it it may not pop open freely , overall I`d say about 2 hours work.
its also worth greasing up the electric window sliders wilst the door panel is off.
over all its a much stronger design than on the S, which had a tendancy to drop on a regular basis!
these were done up quite tight, so I pulled back the carpet to reveal the hinge mounting bolts inside the car, and just slightly slackened these off to enable me to lift or lower the door without it feeling to loose.
then sit on the ground with your legs under the door to try and achieve the right hieght reqiured, and tighten the bolts back up, this may have to be repeated to try and judge the correct amount of lift needed, but the most time consuming part is adjusting the locking bar which is bolted to the door, to align correctly with the lock itself, as if it is not just right you will feel the door rub when you close it, or when you open it it may not pop open freely , overall I`d say about 2 hours work.
its also worth greasing up the electric window sliders wilst the door panel is off.
over all its a much stronger design than on the S, which had a tendancy to drop on a regular basis!
sorry for the late reply, I checked the bolts inside the door, but its a lot of agro to go through only to find that they are okay, the actual adjustment was made by slightly slackening off the bolts inside the car, and the top bolts were a bit tricky to access because of the bonnet release cable and a few electrical connectors that didn`t have a lot of slack in them to allow easy access to the bolt heads.
its probably worth taking the door panel off anyway because once you have aligned the door properly you may have to adjust the closed window hieght, by turning the stopper screw at the top of the window frame that houses the cable/pulley mechanism.(do the adjusting with the window down).
hope this helps, clive.
its probably worth taking the door panel off anyway because once you have aligned the door properly you may have to adjust the closed window hieght, by turning the stopper screw at the top of the window frame that houses the cable/pulley mechanism.(do the adjusting with the window down).
hope this helps, clive.
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