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Car Door is Sticky |
Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003
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This is a question for you car-inclined peoples. The driver side car door is sticky, in that it has become difficult to open. It takes a lot more force than normal to open it, pulling on the handle. A few things online said applying WD-40 to the hinges and "catch" (I assume that's the bit on the very outside of the door that latches onto the car) will solve the problem. I've also heard WD-40 can be dangerous to use on the wrong things. Any advice? Is WD-40 okay to use? Other solutions? Thanks!
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jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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If it stiff to only pull open but moves easily when it has cleared the frame, then open the door and try to lift it up. If it moves a lot, say, so that you can make it make a 'clunk' sound by lifting it, then the hinge pins are probably worn and that's causing it. If it is stiff all the way through, then you should try applying grease liberally to the hinges and the joints on the metal rod that comes from the frame and into the door. WD-40 won't do much on those. You don't deserve my sig. |
Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003
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It is only stiff when you're trying to open it. After it has cleared the frame it is fine. I'll try to lift the door up and see if that's the case. If it is, how would I fix it? New hinges? Or hopefully some easier solution?
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jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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Some cars has replaceable hinge pins but if they're not available then yeah, new hinges. You don't deserve my sig. |
Matt Smith
Member #783
November 2000
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WD-40 can wash grease out, so use proper thick grease (maybe after washing out dirt with WD-40). If the hinges seem solid, then maybe the door or frame has been bent. Manual bending is usually sufficient with modern cars, which are made of flimsy tin-plate. |
BAF
Member #2,981
December 2002
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I usually spray silicon lube on my door hardware every once in a while. |
Ron Novy
Member #6,982
March 2006
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I noticed that if someone urinates on a car door that can also make it stick Make sure the door is clean around the edges and the hinge is not warped or bent. A little WD-40 won't hurt the hinge either, but you may have to work it in by opening and closing the door while applying a little more each time. ---- |
BAF
Member #2,981
December 2002
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WD-40 will displace water and coat the stuff, but it won't lubricate very well at all. |
bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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The doors on my car were like that when we got it second hand. A garage looked at it and "fixed" it by pulling up on the door, bending it back up I assume. Apparently it was bend down a little bit and bending it back was enough to correct the problem. -- acc.js | al4anim - Allegro 4 Animation library | Allegro 5 VS/NuGet Guide | Allegro.cc Mockup | Allegro.cc <code> Tag | Allegro 4 Timer Example (w/ Semaphores) | Allegro 5 "Winpkg" (MSVC readme) | Bambot | Blog | C++ STL Container Flowchart | Castopulence Software | Check Return Values | Derail? | Is This A Discussion? Flow Chart | Filesystem Hierarchy Standard | Clean Code Talks - Global State and Singletons | How To Use Header Files | GNU/Linux (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo) | rot (rot13, rot47, rotN) | Streaming |
Ron Novy
Member #6,982
March 2006
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Silicon has so many uses... I wonder if silicon based life would use silicon lube.;D ---- |
BAF
Member #2,981
December 2002
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Quote: A garage looked at it and "fixed" it by pulling up on the door, bending it back up I assume. Apparently it was bend down a little bit and bending it back was enough to correct the problem. Doesn't sound like a proper fix to me. :\ |
jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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It's proper allright, that's still how they make the doors fit in the factories. Car bodies aren't made with micrometer precision so manual adjustment is always necessary. I remember this one particular flimsy car, a Nissan Sunny from the 80's that had so flexy bodywork that if you jacked up one tire, the doors wouldn't open or close. You don't deserve my sig. |
Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001
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Quote: I wonder if silicon based life would use silicon lube. http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/595048 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest. |
jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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Johan, Silicon != Silicone. You don't deserve my sig. |
Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001
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Um, well, she should have thought "Carbone" instead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest. |
LennyLen
Member #5,313
December 2004
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Quote: I remember this one particular flimsy car, a Nissan Sunny from the 80's that had so flexy bodywork that if you jacked up one tire, the doors wouldn't open or close. We had one of those. If you opened the door too forcibly, that could bend it out of shape, and you had to bend it back again to get it to close. edit: and too forcibly wasn't that much. I must have been 10 - 12 years old at the time, and I did it frequently.
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Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001
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I had a Datsun 100A and it behaved just like that. No doors worked, not the hood, not the trunk lid, when one wheel was jacked up. It was a very small car, 988 cc. And it was rusty. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest. |
Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
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I used to be a mechanic, and we used canned lithium grease on door hinges and latches. WD40 dries out in a few days. If a door was sagging because of wear, it usually took a bit of welding to fill the worn hole (oblong now instead of circular) in addition to new pins. Unless the hinge unbolts from the door as well as the frame then maybe you can find a junkyard hinge. Usually the bolts for the hinge have movable nuts on the backside so you can loosen them, move the door where you want, then retighten the bolts and test. Quite a bit of trial and error there. You can also get a floor jack and pad it with a pile of rags, open the door halfway and bend it back up a bit with the jack. That's pretty much a last resort. They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas. |
Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003
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Well, I tried pulling up on the door and found it pretty firmly in place (car moved up ). I'll try some lube when next I get a chance and hope that helps. Someone said something about washing it with WD-40 before applying the grease. Do I just put some WD-40 on, wipe clean, and then apply grease? Thanks for the help thus far.
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Matt Smith
Member #783
November 2000
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Or you could weld the doors shut and climb in through the window. You are called Billybob after all |
bamccaig
Member #7,536
July 2006
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Billybob said: Well, I tried pulling up on the door and found it pretty firmly in place (car moved up ). I'm driving a Grand Prix. The door isn't flimsy, but I had the same type of problem. Just because the door isn't flimsy (it shouldn't be in a good car...) that doesn't mean that it couldn't have been bent. Imagine a person putting their weight on the car... That could be over a hundred pounds of force... It can happen. Assuming the problem is that it's bent and you can't bend it back by hand you could put a jack beneath it and lift up on it (as mentioned earlier; and you'll want to pad the bottom to avoid doing damage). Probably would want somebody with experience doing it though... -- acc.js | al4anim - Allegro 4 Animation library | Allegro 5 VS/NuGet Guide | Allegro.cc Mockup | Allegro.cc <code> Tag | Allegro 4 Timer Example (w/ Semaphores) | Allegro 5 "Winpkg" (MSVC readme) | Bambot | Blog | C++ STL Container Flowchart | Castopulence Software | Check Return Values | Derail? | Is This A Discussion? Flow Chart | Filesystem Hierarchy Standard | Clean Code Talks - Global State and Singletons | How To Use Header Files | GNU/Linux (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo) | rot (rot13, rot47, rotN) | Streaming |
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