grottoman

Hello all-

I didn't find a thread on this, sorry if I missed it.

My '03 driver's side door has been opened enough, and unfortunately with force when it catches a wind gust or opens downhill, etc, that it's actually resulted in a lengthening crack in the middle of the inside door panel.

I don't have a pic handy, but there are two hinges that are fine, which actually keep the door attached to the car frame.

In between, on the higher side of the inside of the door, there's a 'stopper' bolted to the door, with a bracket 'inside' the door.

That's where the force of the door opening is applied to the door itself, and where the crack has appeared.

It's already a good 4-6 inches long, and presumably will keep going.

I spoke with a welder, and he was concerned about ancillary damage unless the door were removed and taken all apart, etc. He suggested I take it to the dealer for an opinion.

Anybody else run into this? Any thoughts on how to address it?

In my head, the options seem to be
-wait for the stopper to fully rip a piece of the door off, at which point the door will open all the way into the car itself, ouch
-attempt a small scale weld 'in place' with a small overlay strip across the crack
-pull the door all the way apart to where the welder felt more comfortable doing a solid repair job
-find a replacement door altogether

Thanks for any constructive commentary, besides 'don't let the door swing open'.

ShawnOk

iTrader: (1)

I'm sorry, I'm really trying to visualize the part you're referring to but I'm coming up with a blank. I think a photo would really be helpful.

mrblister

You should be able to make up a cover patch as large as will fit and then pop rivet it in place you could slot the patch to allow for the bracket to slip through and this way you wont have to remove the bracket.
Pop rivets are really strong and you could also use some jp metal weld or another metal repair cement in between the patch and the door and the rivets would add the attachment strength.

grottoman

Thanks for the feedback so far.
See attached image to get a better sense than my description gave.

mrblister

Was this car in accident because that metal should be a fairly heavy gauge you would think
I see now the problem with its location you would have to hammer out a metal patch to conform to the dimensions of the area. Not an easy task. You might want to ask lexus and see if this is a re-occurring problem, They might have a better solution . You may just have to pull the door and have it welded by an expert

Good luck

mandyfig

I can not even begin to imagine how the crack started...

mrblister

Does the door panel line up to the body when closed . It almost looks like it had some downward force that cracked the metal from the top. If the door caught a gust of wind I think the plastic stopper bar would of broken way before the metal cracked.

grottoman

No relevant accidents. (Hit from behind at a stoplight, crumpled bumper a bit, and backed into right front quarter while parked at a gas station.... neither caused any frame or damage near the door).
Regarding how it started, under the rubber gasket, there is an attachment post or something (which attaches the gasket to the door). So that yields a small hole there, about four inches from the stopper bracket.
So when the door swings out, it yanks that bracket, putting pressure in between two holes in the metal.
So it makes sense to me, with enough force or repetition.

Regarding the metal failing before the stopper itself, the force on the stopper is along its length, whereas the metal feels the force orthogonally.

Sort of like trying to break a thin wooden dowel rod by repeatedly pulling on its two ends, versus causing a failure in sheet metal by repeatedly bending it at the same location...

All that said, it makes sense to me, but I'm still surprised. Also a little surprised if nobody else has seen the problem. Perhaps the attachment post was installed poorly, with a ragged cut in the metal or something that gave it a chance to "tear"...

mrblister

looking at the picture the stopper has two very heavy bolts that hold the attachment point. It would seem if what your thinking the stress would of opened much more then what it shows. The crack as it continues up gets wider and wider. The stopper is not a hinge and is there fore is not subject to the stress. The stopper only function is to prevent the door from opening past a certain point. It really looks like the door was forced beyond its normal point. The lexus doors are really heavy and are quite long in relation to other cars. So a lot of force would be behind them

Bon

I know that Toyota Sienna's have had this same problem over a large number of vans. In the Toyota the failure would start with a weld failure and spread from there. They didn't call it a "recall" but rather a "warranty enhancement" and extended the warranty on the 04-07 vans that had the problem. A new replacement door might cost $2,000 to replace. Some have removed the door and welded backing plates or bolts and rivets to fix the problem. I don't know how any of the repairs have held up.

It looks like your crack started a the bolt for the "Door Stay" (yeah, that's what it's called) and ran from there. Too bad you didn't catch it before it got so long. I'd let a body shop, or two, give you their opinion and go from there.