clunking sound in lower hinge of driver's door

[John G]

The driver's door in my 2001 has developed a loud noise I would describe as something between a click and a clunk. It happens when the door is about 30 degrees open -- not enough to get in and out of the vehicle, but open enough that I can see into the hinge area. Maybe there's supposed to be a detente at that angle, to hold the door open?



The noise comes from the lower hinge. The lower hinge has, in its middle, a roller wheel that appears to be made of black plastic. As the door is closed, I can see the roller-wheel stall in its rotation and then jump at the moment there's the loud clunk. I'm not sure the roller-wheel is the problem, though -- its irregular movement might just be a symptom of something else.



The sound makes me think of something big that's loose and slips into place.



I've squirted a lot of WD40 and Tri-Flo light lubricating oil on what appear to be all the moving parts of the hinges. That didn't help any.



Any ideas?

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Other cars have a detent that will hold the door open. If that should go bad, it could lock the door open and you would have to replace the mechanism. Does the door seem to stop momentarily when you go past the clunk? You can lift up on the door to look for play to see if the hinge is bad!

Ed

 

[Richard L]

Try lubing the hinges...That usually solves those kinds of problems. You will probably need a little bit of white lithium grease.



...Rich

 

[John G]

Okay, I found the problem and a fix.



As I mentioned in my original post, the problem seemed to center on the plastic roller wheel in the lower hinge assembly -- this is part of the detente mechanism for holding the door part-way open. My wheel had developed a flat spot. That's the problem. The fix was simple -- when the door was wide open, just use my finger to turn the plastic roller wheel a bit so that a different part of it would make contact.



I'm posting this in case it turns out to be useful to anybody else who searches for the same problem.

 

[Doug Watts]

The flat spot will eventually roll back around and you'll get the noise again. Mine did. Use the white lithium grease and the sound goes away completely after a couple days of opening and closing.