How to avoid sagging of car doors. Doing auto repair with your own hands.
Quite often it is necessary to meet people for whom the doors of the car have become a whole problem. As a rule, the biggest trouble of car doors is their susceptibility to sagging.
Often such diseases “suffer” cars with a run, that is representatives of the used segment.
In order to determine that the car doors really sag, I offer you a number of the most common “symptoms” of this unpleasant phenomenon:
1. Every time you open/close the car doors, you have to apply excessive force.
2. During the movement of the car on irregularities, characteristic sounds (rattling, knocking, rubbing) can be heard.
3. 3. Water leaks into the vehicle interior through the seal.
3. Scratches on the sills.
Now I suggest you consider the actual causes that can cause the car door to sag:
1. Loose door hinge fasteners.
2. Skewed door hinges.
3. Serious wear and tear or wear and tear in the hinges and axles.
Determining the option that best suits your case is simple enough. It is only necessary to open the doors, and taking their lower part, try to stagger them, in order to determine the nature and presence of backlash in the hinges and fasteners. If you find no backlash, then the door is all right. It is also necessary to carefully inspect the places where the hinges are attached to the car body, if there is deformation, sagging just inevitable.
Once the cause of sag established, you can take directly to the elimination of malfunction, in other words, the repair of the car with their own hands. When the cause of sagging – wear and tear in the hinges, while the hinges themselves are in very good condition, you will have to replace only the axle. However, if the wear was subjected and the hinges, it will be better if you make a replacement of the whole set.
And so, now in order.
In order to make machine repair with your own hands to eliminate door sagging, you need to do the following points.
1. It is necessary to dismantle the mating part of the lock, it is necessary, in order to facilitate the process of adjustment.
2. Close the door and try to figure out the correct position of the car door on the vertical axis. If the door will have a displacement (up/down), you can eliminate this defect by loosening the door hinges and then raising/lowering the door.
3. Next, you need to properly tighten the fasteners and check the position of the door relative to the opening. If you notice that the end part (where the lock is located) is displaced downwards, while the hinges are in perfect condition, you need to release the bottom fastener. Then, using the thin metal plates, you should put them one by one under the hinge and try to achieve the normal position of the car door. When the edge of the door, on the contrary, through too much, you will have to do all the same operations, only in relation to the upper hinge. It is important to understand, in order to repair the car with your own hands did not go in vain, and the time was not wasted, I advise not to rush at this stage, give a little more of your time, because the final result and the quality of the entire repair depends on this stage.
4. The next step to eliminate door sag is to adjust the horizontal position of the door. Remember, too much recessed inward door is not good either. If that’s how you got it, you’ll need to move both hinges a little closer to the edge. The same, but exactly the opposite is necessary to do when the door strongly protrudes outward, that is to shift it will have to the inside of the car interior. Be sure to pay attention to the fact that the door is perpendicular to the horizontal plane. This should be done, because a violation of this parameter can cause the lock to malfunction, up to and including the jamming of the door.
5. After the car doors are aligned correctly, you need to adjust the mechanical lock, as well as the position of its mating part.
How to avoid sagging of car doors. Doing auto repair with your own hands.
After all the above manipulations, the car door should easily open and close, respectively, with a characteristic pop. In case there is no clap, and the process of closing and opening occurs with some complications, all the above steps will have to be done again.
To summarize, I would like to add. The tightening of the door bolts should be checked regularly, in addition, lubricate the lock mechanisms and the hinges themselves. What you should not do: leave the door fully open for a long time, “hang” on them or lean on them with all your weight, refrain from hanging all sorts of heavy objects on them. Among other things, I advise against slamming the doors too much. As a reward for complying with all these rules, car doors will reward you with trouble-free long-term service, and you in turn will no longer have to waste your precious time on car repair with your hands.
Door sagging in the car – why does it occur and how to eliminate it?
Its presence brings a lot of inconvenience, because in this case, closing the door becomes problematic, or it is impossible to close it at all. In this case, every time it is moved, not quite a pleasant sound is heard. Many car owners in this case can be confused and do not know how to proceed. In fact, even an inexperienced motorist will be able to eliminate it easily, and you can do without referring to a costly car service.
The cause of the malfunction. First of all, the driver should know how to find out if the door is sagging, according to visual signs, because the presence of sagging requires immediate repair work. The most reliable sign is the increased effort required to open or close it. Often this defect is accompanied in the form of such sounds as creaking, knocking, or ringing while driving. Another sure sign is the penetration of moisture into the cabin, even with the door closed.
Drivers with experience determine the presence of such a defect by scratches of varying depth on the door sill, which remain there after the door is opened or closed. Another test becomes this sequence of actions:
- Open the door;
- Grasp its lower and upper edge;
- Try to rock it up and down.
If a backlash is detected on the door, then it is definitely sagging. To determine the sequence of actions, it’s worth first figuring out what the cause is. The most common causes will be the following:
- Skewed door hinges. This usually occurs as a result of body geometry failure;
- Worn hinges on the door;
- One or more of the door hinges are loose.
Options for correcting a skewed door. Bringing the skewed part into a normal state is possible and by your own efforts, without going to the service station. At first, you should find out if there is a problem in order to make repairs and fix the problem.
For example, if the cause is the wear of the axle, and the hinges are still in normal condition, there is no need to replace them. But if the hinges are in disrepair, it is worth replacing them as soon as possible. But most often you can do with the adjustment of the hinges. For convenience in the lock is worth to perform the dismantling of the mating part. After closing the door, you should check it for vertical displacement up or down. If it is present, it is necessary to loosen the hinges, and perform the raising or lowering of the door.
You can also determine this malfunction by running it along the edge of the door near the lock. If there is a sag, then you need to loosen the hinge mount at the bottom, and then put under it the required number of thin metal plates to raise it. In the opposite situation, a similar operation is carried out with the upper hinge.
The door may be too displaced inside the cabin or protrude from it. In this case, it is worthwhile to move them to the opposite side. To prevent the door from jamming, you need to ensure that it is clearly positioned at right angles to the ground, then check the location of the lock, as it may also need to be adjusted.
When done correctly, no more effort will be required to open and close the door.
Bottom line: A defect like a sagging door is worth fixing as soon as possible to prevent further damage. If you can not do it the first time, it is worth doing all the steps until the desired result will not be achieved.
