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I just pulled the cover off, cleaned and polished the inside of the cover and cleaned up the bearing, and greased it. One hour of work (it was a bear getting the cover back on), and the sound is better, but it's clear I need a replacement hinge.
Best price I've found is a bit under $500, and I'm guessing that it doesn't come painted, which bothers me a bit more than the money in some respects.
With that bolt removed, the sleeve wrapped around the hinge will flex when the door is moved and keep it from grabbing and popping. Someone on here has fixed this before, but there were no detailed instructions so I never knew how, now you do.
This bolt is NOT load bearing in any way to the hinge itself.
It worked! Thanks! Great end to a crappy day. You rock!
I just pulled the cover off, cleaned and polished the inside of the cover and cleaned up the bearing, and greased it. One hour of work (it was a bear getting the cover back on), and the sound is better, but it's clear I need a replacement hinge.
Best price I've found is a bit under $500, and I'm guessing that it doesn't come painted, which bothers me a bit more than the money in some respects.
Did you consider rebuilt and better than new, rather than new? That link I had in there for my hinge replacement was $320 shipped to Canada, and it was painted to match my car.
This rebuild:http://planetsoarer.com/hinges/index.htm
I hope it's not against rules to bump an older threader like this, but every time I try to search for the issue I'm having I'm always led right back to this thread.
The driver side door on my SC doesn't really pop, as I would describe it. It's more of a constant creaking sound as you open the door and you can hear it pretty much through the entire travel of the hinge, from open to close/vice versa.
It's very much like this with some popping as it goes through the creaking (heads up, the guy in the video swears so maybe NSFW):
This thread really makes it sound more like a single, or maybe 2-3, individual pops. Would doing what OLT posted remove that creak like in the video I linked?
Oh, and the door doesn't seem to visibly sag, and it lines up withe the front and rear fenders perfectly.
edit: This is an AZ car too, it's not full of rust. I do plan on cleaning it all down with WD-40 then applying some grease at all the contact points but wanted to see if I should do as OLT suggests while I'm in there. I'd prefer not to remove anything that I don't need to.
You can check the condition of the main bearings by opening the door then grasping the lower outer edge to see if the door will move up and down. If you have slop/movement then the main bearings are indeed worn and will not get better by adding grease/lubricant of any form. The two fixed links at the top and bottom of the hinge which are held on by a pin, riveted at both ends, do wear in the composite bearings. These are more the cause of the door hitting the fender when opening. Only way to fix these properly is to replace the hinge.
Thanks for those details. I've had read more into the main to issues with the hinge and I see it is usually either the rubbing issue that OLT explains how to fix in this post, or the worn out bearing you talk about, Helieng.
This is an AZ car, as mentioned. The hinge from an initial visual inspection looks pretty clean aside from some light dust/dirt build up. I'd be surprised if it is rusted out, but I'm sure it's possible it's just worn over time. The main reason I don't think it's the bearing is that the problem it causes is the door to collide with the fender which mine does not. The gap of the open door is equal to the gap of the passenger side door which has no creaking at all.
Thanks for the tips on how to test if it's bad, will check into it. I hope it isn't, because as you say it'll require replacing the hinge.
04-21-14, 07:36 AM
