xantia door
Moderator: RichardW
xantia door
the drivers door on my 97 xantia estate has dropped ever so slightly so that it hits the rear passenger door at the top. i have tried renewing the two hinge pins with no effect,the hinges themselves dont look adjustable. anybody else had this problem, and ,if so ,how to overcome it .thanks.
Ooooh yes but you will not be a happy chappy until its repaired[:(]
Some of the Estates have this fault with the bottom hinge but it can be repaired quite easlily and well. It does however depend on where you live as to how much it costs. Some repairers will do it for as little as a few hundred pounds. I repaired mine with resorting to welding but it takes a bit cunning.
Give this forum a search for the topic on the Search feature at the top right of the menu listing.
I have some pictures of my repair if you want to see them but I will have to e. mail them to you directly. Where are you based?
Good luck, Robin.
Some of the Estates have this fault with the bottom hinge but it can be repaired quite easlily and well. It does however depend on where you live as to how much it costs. Some repairers will do it for as little as a few hundred pounds. I repaired mine with resorting to welding but it takes a bit cunning.
Give this forum a search for the topic on the Search feature at the top right of the menu listing.
I have some pictures of my repair if you want to see them but I will have to e. mail them to you directly. Where are you based?
Good luck, Robin.
Sounds as though your top hinge has torn away from the pillar. If it has not then something has bent and you will have to re-align the door in the same way that the manufacturers did, - by bending the door and the pillar - probably by grabbing it at the rear bottom with the door nearly closed and lift up!
jeremy
jeremy
Hi, if it is the bottom hinge problem which as I say is a fault with the Estates, you can check it by lifting the bottom of the door when its open <i></i>just 6 or so inches<i></i>. It will lift up and an inspection of the pillar at the same time will show the panel around the lower hinge flexing, but in the early period of the fault showing itself there are no external visible signs at the hinge. The weld that fails is inside the outer skin of the pillar where it should have remained attached to an inner stronger panel within the pillar. I was able to bolt the outer skin and inner panel together with a plate. Sounds crude but it is not really if done with care. A welded job is better if you can find someone who will do it for a reasonable amount. Around Cambridge they were all talking hundreds and stripped out doors etc.
Hope this helps identify the cause. Robin
Hope this helps identify the cause. Robin
Having read Robin's really helpful posts on this, I started to take the door off - but the lower hinge pin sheared and I'm left with the lower half of it only, so now I can't get the door off.
So, Instead, I took off the door trim and drilled an 8mm hole right through the hinge & various layers of metal, right into the car, having first moved the carpet, sound proofing & wiring out of the way inside & put a pieve of wood there for safety's sake. Then I cut a piece of M8 studding and poked it in, put a nut on the outside of the hinge, a humungous washer on the inside, tightened it all up and BINGO - problem solved!
So don't even try top take off the door, just take off the outside trim & drill through the hole. Needs a long drill, though - I started with a 6mm drill (smaller drills weren't long enough for the pilot hole, enlarged the hole with an ordinary 8mm drill, but it wasn't long enough to go right through. I had a long 8mm masonry drill in the shed so used that (slowly, they don't like getting hot!) to go right thriugh two more layers of thin steel.
Apart from the abortive attrempt at removing the door, total job time was about an hour.
Only thing is, I've now only got half a hinge pin in my lower hinge........ Will be fun if that breaks too - better keep it well oiled!
Thanks a lot for your information in Andyspares - a really useful forum!
So, Instead, I took off the door trim and drilled an 8mm hole right through the hinge & various layers of metal, right into the car, having first moved the carpet, sound proofing & wiring out of the way inside & put a pieve of wood there for safety's sake. Then I cut a piece of M8 studding and poked it in, put a nut on the outside of the hinge, a humungous washer on the inside, tightened it all up and BINGO - problem solved!
So don't even try top take off the door, just take off the outside trim & drill through the hole. Needs a long drill, though - I started with a 6mm drill (smaller drills weren't long enough for the pilot hole, enlarged the hole with an ordinary 8mm drill, but it wasn't long enough to go right through. I had a long 8mm masonry drill in the shed so used that (slowly, they don't like getting hot!) to go right thriugh two more layers of thin steel.
Apart from the abortive attrempt at removing the door, total job time was about an hour.
Only thing is, I've now only got half a hinge pin in my lower hinge........ Will be fun if that breaks too - better keep it well oiled!
Thanks a lot for your information in Andyspares - a really useful forum!
Andy, yes you have to drill from the inside right through the box section. I used a hole cutter on the inner panel to gain access across the box section and then drill through both the pillar and hinge plate.
Cut two small holes with the cutter rather than one big one to retain as much strength as possible.
It takes care and patience but it can be done neatly.
By releasing the door stop strap you may just get enough clearance to get a smaller drill into the hinge plate.
Good luck, Robin.
Cut two small holes with the cutter rather than one big one to retain as much strength as possible.
It takes care and patience but it can be done neatly.
By releasing the door stop strap you may just get enough clearance to get a smaller drill into the hinge plate.
Good luck, Robin.
I finally got around to doing somethinng about this as it definitely seemed to be getting worse. I got hold of an 8mm x 200mm drill from Screwfix which should be plenty long enough. Having no confidence whatsoever that I could manage to drill though the hinge in the correct place from behind I decided to do it from the front, so I undid the door stay and the hinge pins which gives just enough play on the wiring to more the door along about 2 inches. That allowed me a clear view of the hinge. First I tried drilling some small holes in the plate above and below the hinge with a plan of a few spot welds. It is immediately obvious how loose the material behind is and also how thin it is - my arc welder, even on the lowest setting pretty much just made bigger holes ! So, with that plan scuppered I drilled through the hinge and the box section. A length of 8mm threaded rod, a few large washers on the inside, some spring washers and a couple of nuts, do it all up FT and the door now lines up perfectly. I was so happy and relived I was dancing around the garage ! 
Total time would have been about 30 minutes, had I not initially decided to remove the door properly, which involved removing the internal door card etc etc - bad plan. Only got half way through that before deciding it wasn't nesessary.
Total time would have been about 30 minutes, had I not initially decided to remove the door properly, which involved removing the internal door card etc etc - bad plan. Only got half way through that before deciding it wasn't nesessary.