Skoda Octavia ll door drop fix.

Got roped in to fix Octavia drivers door drop, it seems quite common and it's a pain but here's some solutions. The hinges have bushes pre assembled, top hinge bushes on car, bottom bushes on door. Because of the door weight these bushes wear on ~60* out of total 360* but this wear coincides with door closure which is where the drop is a problem. Quick Fix 1. Take door off which is just taking out hinge pins and electric plug. Find the bushes and rotate them through 180*. Re-assemble and drop fixed. Quick Fix 2. Look at gap between door front and front wing and compare with good door. It should be typically ~3mm. If you find gap at bottom of door is ~1mm then bottom hinge is problem. OK maybe hinge has moved or worn. Either way take off door side of bottom hinge and add 2 washers underneath it and reassemble. This is equivalent to moving hinge backwards but easy to do. Impossible Fix 3. Taking off car side of either hinge is dam near impossible because the bolt from inside the car is real hard to get to. We gave up after an hour. But we worked around it. The top hinge has bushes on car side probably worn. We bought a new top hinge and carefully took out the bushes by prising up the bottom lip and collapsing bush into a spiral a bit like taking a tyre off. Spiral it into existing top hinge (old bush out) and push in the hinge pin to get it seated. lever flange back out then flatten it with a mole grip or pliers. So now you have new bushes without taking top hinge off. We bought a new bottom hinge and just swopped the door side (with new bushes) and as car side seemed to have moved added 2 washers. When it was all done and the door closed perfectly it was wonderfully satisfying. Hope one of these fixes helps you.