Thread: Door Binds/Rubs aqainst quarter panel when open - Please Help

O3 GTP.

Driver door just started to squeak/grind when openning. Within couple of days it became very bad so I checked it out, and door is not hung/aligned properly. It is too far forward - the gap between front of door and front quarter panel is too small, and the gap between front door and rear door is too big. When the driver door opens, the bottom front corner of door catches quarter panel/molding at wheel well. Its bad, its chipped away paint & bent bottom of quarter panel. The entire door should be shifted towards the rear 1/8"-1/4", and the door needs to rotate at hinges counter-clockwise so the latch/handle would be raised 1/4"-1/2". If I could move bottom hinge towards rear slightly, it should stop any more damage. I don't know what happened that caused this, but it seems to be getting progressively worse.

I supported door with jack and removed some of the bolts on hinge at chasis side. From looking at it, I don't see any adjustable bolts/connections. The bolts on hinge at door side are less accessible and don't appear to have adjustment either, but I am not sure--didn't remove those. I can see bolts behind the hinge assembly that appear to hold the hinge to chasis, but it appears that door must be removed to get to those, and I dont know if those are adjustable - and really don't want to remove my door if it is not going to solve the problem.

Is there a way to adjust door swing/hanging of door? Do I have to remove door? Which I assume would require removal of interior door panel in order to disconnect wiring?

Any advice/pointers is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Brian. We were on same page, but I used washers.

It took more adjusting though. First, I placed washer on bottom hinge on door side. That lifted the rear/latch of the door perfectly, but door still did not have required clearance at fender. The door was still too far forward and still hit quarter panel when opening.

So..... According to service manual, fore and aft adjustments are made at hinge support on chasis, which is accessed thru wheel well. What a pain. Service manual says loosen (2) 13mm bolts, (1) 10 mm bolt, and then a TORX for the cone adjuster (?). My car does not have a TORX, it is a 8mm bolt which is recessed and has very swallow head. I could not get to it, even after trip to store to add to my tool box a 3rd 8mm socket and rachet w/ flex head.

I finally removed door to access 8mm bolt, and still could not get it loosened....

So I put (1) washer at each bolt on top hinge, and (2) @ each bolt @ bottom hinge, between the chasis and hinge. Much to my surprise, perfect fit, swings and latches smooth like warm butter.

This mess took most of my Sat and 1/2 my Sun. The dumb part is, the actual fix took me about 2hours - the rest of the time was wasted trying to figure out how door worked and trying to reach these crazy inaccessable bolts.

I didn't know I was supposed to replace the hinges with new ones.... So I "fixed" the problem for free w/ parts (washers 6x) I had laying around.

Seems to me doors need to be adjustable, and GM service manual says they are. It's just the bolt for the cone adjuster on my particular car gave me too much trouble. Besides, I don't think new hinges would have fixed my problem, ie it was the mounting angle on the chasis that should have been shimmed for proper alignment--but since I could not get it to budge, I shimmed between chasis mounting angle and hinge to get same affect to push door (hinge included) aft.

As an aside, I have a friend w/ an Intrigue and he had to remove and rehang his door, he said he beat the heck out of the mounting plate w/ a hammer to get the door aligned.

Z3r0, my experience was w/ driver door of a 03 GTP.

Door has 2 hinges, upper and lower. Open the door, and from cabin side you can clearly see (4) 13mm(?) bolt heads for each hinge, (2) chasis side and (2) door side. According to service manual, losening these bolts allows for up/down & in/out door adjustment.

Not much room to turn bolts (door side is wrench only action) and they are pretty long, so it takes little time. Service manual also says, in order to remove door, remove hinge bolts on door side, however, I found hinge bolts on chasis side more accessible. If I have to do it again, I would leave door side hinge bolts alone.

Each hinge bolts to a mounting angle on the chasis side, and the angle is bolted to the chasis. Service manual says, for fore/aft door adjustment, adjust the mounting angle. Bottom mounting angle has (3) bolts, top mounting angle has same (3) bolts + a cone adjuster nut (which I am still unsure of how it works because I could not get it loose). Manual says this nut is TORX, but mine was 8mm bolt. Manual says, access these bolts thru wheel well by removing wheel well liner, then insulation (I just folded the insulation out my way).

These bolts, esp. top, are tough to get to. I eventually removed door for access to them. And still could not make the adjustment. Shimming between the hinge and chasis was the best I could do with what I had, and it seems to have worked.

If I have to do it again, I will just leave wheel well alone, and start by removing door.

or just adjust the door lol...............................

I'd use plastic body filler knives or rubber ended spatula what ever to set the door jamb in the back.
BTW you can get at most of the hinge bolts if you take the inner fender out and move the insulation piece and then get a few bolts tight enough to open the door back up with out it moving.

Umm if you do get new hinges you'd still have to realign it so why not try reset the jamb 1st ?