Hi!

I own a Dodge Avenger -96 2,5 V6.

I recently went through "vehicle inspection" here in Sweden, where they check for road traffix safety etc..

I recived negative on the drivers door, wrong colour on turn signals back (must be orange in Sweden) and at last they said the lower front ball joints where damaged.

So, I have ordered some "universal turn signals in orange" and will fix the ball joints aswell.

The MAIN problem is the door, the negative was because it has no door handle and the door is all "skew", you cannot close or open the door if you dont hold it up.

Well well I thought, I buy a door handle from ebay and fix that first, did that yesterday, took me some hours

With everything else fixed on the vehicle, now the "skew" door must be fixed so it can be opened and closed.

I checked for possible causes and found that the door and the hinge (the lower hinge) is just FINE, the problem is what the hinge is mounted to, the "chassi/body" seems to be all loose and soft (yes the steel!!!), so I will need to get a look at it from behind, should I take of the inner fender from the left front wheel then? It is only the lower hinge mountage (chassi/body) that is defective.what to do!!

The local garage said it will be one whole days work for fixing the problem, so it will be around $850 dollars I will not pay those money.

I have no access for a welding-machine.

Any ideas what could be wrong or what could be done is appreciated

 

are you saying that it is rusty ? soft metal ? unfortunately there are integrated nuts into that pillar. If I remember properly there is no access from behind (sealed pillar).
without access to a welder I can't think of any good way to fix this.
with a welder you can form a patch panel to reinforse the area and drill holes to access the nuts and weld it inplace over the bad area.

Are you sure that the hinge pins are tight ? I see the upper hinge pins wear and cause the rear of the door to drop, same with lower hinges
raise up on the door and watch for hinge movement

 

Oh that sounds bad then

The hinge and the door are allright, no problem with it.

But it is like you say, the metal is soft, although the bolts attache as they should the whole metal is soft

It is only the lower hinge mounting thas is defective.

But now when I know this information (I cant get behind it) I could just tell some mechanic that welding is the only solution?

But what about getting it straight?

 

I'd remove the hinges and examine the area ...
there might have been metal fatigue , there could be a crack, damage behind the hinge
If it's cracked you might be able to grind it , weld it , grind flat and repaint it

If there is rust damage then you can either patch it or replace the entire column
or Weld in strengthening from behind but that would be pricey repair

 

Thanks!

I closed the door and removed the two bolts on the lower hinge so I could turn it "outside" so I got a look at whats behind, and the metal seems to be soft and maybe rusty on the "inside", dont really know.

But what about using the third hole for another bolt? The lower hinge uses only 2 bolts when the upper hinge uses 3 bolts.

Asked a mechanic and they want $850 for fixing the problem, they say they must inspect everything etc.. and then deside how to fix it.

I am going to remove the outer fender completely so I can try some things without damaging it.

A lot easier for welding if it comes to that..

Thanks so far!

Best regard

 

Hi again!

Problem fixed!

I put to steel-sheets on each side of the "mounting", worked perfectly

The problem was rust on the to mounting-nuts, they had loosend up.

Best regard