How to adjust front passenger door

[thebrighton]

My son has just picked up a Citigo so there are now 2 in the family. I know it hasn't been involved in an accident but the front passenger door is sitting a fraction to low so I'm guessing it has dropped for some reason. It actually gently rubs the sill when it closes and you can see where it has started to wear the paint away. There are numerous bolts attaching the door so is there a relatively easy way to loosen some off to raise the door then re tighten? I don't want to loosen the wrong ones and make it worse.

Cheers

[KenONeill]

@thebrighton - Given the OP, I'd suggest using the easiest (to him and you) adjustment of return to dealer and saying "fix it".

[thebrighton]

Unfortunately not that easy as it's a few years old and was a private purchase. We know the previous owner and he just didn't bother doing anything about it.

Looking at the hinges is there a rubber washer or something between the 2 parts of the hinge. Wondering if this has worn meaning the door sits lower.

[peter3197]

You can check where the wear is by looking at the hinges when lifting the end of the door up. I suspect this is a 3 door, Heavier door, same hinges. I suspect the plastic washer has worn on the bottom hinge or both. If you can't see any up and down movement on the hinges it's possible someone has leant hard on the door when it was open. It should be possible to adjust the striker plate so the door is lifted slightly as it shuts. Curious that it's the passenger door, though.

[thebrighton]

It's actually a 5 door but I managed to sort it today. At some point someone has played with the door as the 2 bolts attaching the 2 hinges to the door showed signs of being attacked with a spanner as they are sprayed over when built and whereas all 3 other doors have immaculate bolt heads this doors weren't.  There are also screws in the hinges which hold the pin joining the 2 halves in place. The paint in these also showed signs of attack.

I loosened them off then raised the door with the aid of my son and retightened the bolts and job done. It doesn't rub and the door now sits in line with the other body panels. A mystery as to why it had been fiddled with of by whom......

[peter3197]

3 minutes ago, thebrighton said:

. A mystery as to why it had been fiddled with of by whom......

Wierd.

[kenfowler3966]

Accident repair?

[thebrighton]

Not that I'm aware of and definitely not in the last 5 years. It's just one of those mysteries, the paint damage to the bolts is over 5 years old but the dropping is recent. The rubber washers between both halves of the hinge were also noticeably thinner than the other doors. Anyhow all sorted now so all good

[kenfowler3966]

Quite often doors are adjusted in the factory using brute force to line them up. If you ever see a video it looks quite scary, but I have resorted to this myself over the years to adjust alignment.

 

Conversely it doesn't take that much to bend a door out of alignment, and as you say it may have had a ham fisted attempt to adjust it back using the hinges. Most cars these days are so precicely built the door goes straignt onto a welded on fixing with no adjustment avaialable. On the production line a lifting frame swings the door in for the operative to just put the bolt in. The doors are fitted initially to go through paint, then removed again to be fitted out elsewhere, before returning to the car later.

 

I haven't looked for a Citigo video, but there are some excellant ones showing the Yeti from flat steel plates coming in to stamping mill, all the way to driving off after completion.

[J.R.]

When its been a car to be sold on and not my own I ahve always used my time honoured method of lifting the vehicle from the rear of the partially opened door using a trolley jack and block of wood until one of the wheels is about to leave the ground then jumping up and down hard with all my weight (was a lot more in those days) on the sill!