Good fix for weak or broken Xantia Door Hinges

falling-out-with-my-car · 05 Jun 2010, 11:10

for my citroen xantia S2 1998 1.9TD estate I bought what appeared to be a pretty good drivers door with great looking hinges after my original door top hinge failed miserably.

I had it sprayed the right colour from silver to dark blue and with some help managed to get it fitted to the car.

the top hinge lasted exactly four months before it failed and only yesterday I had to have it welded like the original door.

Here is a pretty good fix preping for welding of xantia door hinges.

first of all there is no need to remove the door, firstly remove the drivers side wing.

if like most hinge failures the top hinge is still attached to the main door pillar and comming away from the door but the door drops significantly when opened try this.

if the door can be lifted whilst open to its original position then closed so that it is level with the rear door, cut a wooden wedge with approx 8-10mm thickness at the sharp end and insert it about 8 inches from the trailing edge of the door between the lower seal and the bottom of the door, lifting the door slightly higher than the top of the rear door by about a quater of an inch. please remember to lift the door up before closing it before inserting the wedge, you might have to lift the door from the bottom edge slightly to get the wedge in at the bottom of the door.

you might think this isnt posible because the door catch will hold the door firm in position but trust me the catches have roughly a quater of an inch up and down play in them. this has proved true in both my dads Mk1 xantia and my Mk2 xantia.

Now clean around the back of the hinge with whatever you have that will get into the small space , I used a dremmel with a grinding stone bit to grind back the paint to give a nice clean metal surface to weld on.
it is remarkable exactly how much filler citroen use around this top hinge.

my particular hinge had cracked along the top and bottom of the back of the hinge.

if the welder is good enough at his job he should be able to repair this.

my local garage mucked it up at the first attempt so i went back and he tried again apparently he didnt get the metal hot enough so the orriginal weld broke away again. the new weld is so strong you can move the whole car jiggling the door up and down.

the insertion of the wedge has helped the door maintain its original height when the metal around the hinge is superheated the door will drop to the dropped position unless it is wedged from the bottom.

I hope thats clear enough to understand hopefully it will help others to retrieve what is otherwise a perfectly good door esspecially as these parts become more and more scarce in time.
it is also helpful to put some tape either side of the wedge stuck to the door to mark the wedge position, just in case the welder knocks the wedge out, moving around the car.

Originally my Dads idea his Mk1 vsx hatchback top drivers door hinge has lasted another three years and is still going strong and has not dropped at all.

give it lots of paint so it doesnt go rusty and you should be ok.

regards Nigel.

Old-Guy · Unread post by **Old-Guy** » 05 Jun 2010, 14:09

Nigel, brilliant solution.

If you were to change the title, and fix a couple of typos, IMHO it would make a valuable sticky. Jim/Anders?

falling-out-with-my-car · 05 Jun 2010, 20:31

old-guy,

is that better?

regards Nigel.

handyman · Unread post by **handyman** » 05 Jun 2010, 23:35

Hi Nigel, to make the weld repair really effective, you need to cut through the outer skin of the door post , and weld the hinge bracket to the more substantial post behind it that is part of the bulkhead. Once that is done, the door hinge is better supported. It should have been how it was supposed to be done at Heras when they were making the estate cars for Citroen. Cheap, shoddy Spanish robotic welder or the operator was having a siesta when they programmed that weld.

It has been a well-known fault and there is a lot of info in the archive about it.

Never known a hatchback to suffer the same problem,

, but I'm sure somebody will be along in a minute to contra that.

H

falling-out-with-my-car · 06 Jun 2010, 03:03

H,

sorry to keep contradicting you mate, but the thread above is not about the inner part of the hinge comming away from the door post/pillar rather the outer part of the hinge comming away from the drivers door, I did try my best to point this bit out in the description. I also mentioned above that my fathers Mk1 VSX Hatchback drivers door hinge eventually failed and needed welding to, this method for hinges breaking away from doors and not pillars seems to be very effective. at least we have had two cars all be it a Mk1 Hatchback & a Mk2 estate to test the repair method.

the fault doesnt seem to take preferance over hatchbacks or estates of any particular age the problem seems to be that there is so much filler packed around the top door hinge, painted and discuised as welding, that there is a good possibility of weakness developing above or below the hinge, because the hinges were never mounted properly in the first place to any vechicles drivers door in the whole range of xantias.

In fact I would advise anyone with an xantia over six years old to dig out the filler around the door side hinge and clean back the paint and inspect for signs of corrosion or horrizontal rusty splits in the metal above and below the hinge bracket which may be currently hidden by the filler put in place by the factory and spray painted over, to cover up a known shoddy job.

regards nigel.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 06 Jun 2010, 11:03

Old-Guy wrote: If you were to change the title, and fix a couple of typos, IMHO it would make a valuable sticky. Jim/Anders?

Indeed

Moved to Supersticky!

Unread post by **myglaren** » 13 Jun 2010, 20:18

Moved again to "Howto"

falling-out-with-my-car · 14 Jun 2010, 16:59

I hope they can find it after its little trip around the web?

Unread post by **myglaren** » 14 Jun 2010, 18:30

There is a pointer left in stickies.

Unread post by **Kamalbablu** » 12 Oct 2010, 19:55

hello guys ...
its really nice and informative post....
i just liked it....
thanks for your information guys ...........

falling-out-with-my-car · 13 Oct 2010, 12:58

Kamalbablu,

the addition of the wedge 8 inches from the trailing edge of the door, lifting the door is essential as the newly welded door hinge will enevitably drop at least a quarter of an inch making it difficult to close properly.

I am glad this thread has started to make a difference to those in need of help with hinges breaking away from doors.

orriginal post made 6th of April 2010 todays date 13th of October 2010 and my drivers door top hinge is still very well attached to the door, it has lasted longer in use on my car than it did in its orriginal state I only hope I can boast the same thing 3 years down the road like my Dads Mk1 vsx xantia.

regards Nigel.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 13 Oct 2010, 15:16

Sorry Nigel, kamal was a spammer.
Good to hear your door is doing well though.

falling-out-with-my-car · 14 Oct 2010, 18:45

typical,

thanks mate that'll prevent me from talking to myself anymore...lol

yes I am quite suprized that the ole door is still hanging on.

cheers Nigel

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 22 Oct 2010, 10:21

Ill need to give this a go,

My 1994 TD Hatch front door is DIRE in need of dooing...

Will have to make a proper job of it this time...

Paul

falling-out-with-my-car · 22 Oct 2010, 11:21

you will need a wooden wedge approxamately 8mm thick to fit between the sill and the bottom of the door, raising the door by aprox 8mm should be sufficient to allow for some drop once the weld is done.
find the optimum position for the wedge and mark its position with some pvc tape so the welder doesnt have to phaff around finding the right position for the wedge when you get there, explain where the wedge goes ie between the two tape markers on the door.

good welders are hard to come by esspecially people who can weld door hinges, you will also need to clean away the white filler around the hinge bracket which creates a well for the new weld to take to the metal on the door.
good luck.

regards Nigel.