Driver's door scrapping front wing? How did that happen?

[Jimbo_Jet]

Here’s weird one for you all:

I’ve had my car for about 18months now and all of a sudden, about 2 weeks ago, I noticed a brief grinding sound every time I opened my driver’s side door. It now does it every single time I open my driver’s door. At first I just thought that the door hinges needed some grease, but on closer inspection I’ve found that, somehow, the front edge of the door is scraping against the rear edge of the front offside wing every time I open the door?!? As a result a chuck of paintwork has been taken out of the door and is now down to the metal in places. Have a look at these photos below:


This one shows the shut line of the door and you can see where the paint is coming away towards the base of the door. I’d noticed previously that the shut line doesn’t have the same gap all the way down, it does tighten as you go down the door but I’ve never had a problem before.



This one shows the extent of the damage it’s done! This was taken a week ago, the damage is a bit more extensive now.

I’ve checked to see if my driver’s door has dropped but it seems fine to me. You can’t lift it up at the rear of the door when it’s partially open and when it’s fully open you can only just about lift it a couple of mm. So I don’t think it’s that so I’m totally stumped as to what’s suddenly happened as it’s been fine for the last 18 months???

Does any one have any suggestions? The front offside wing appears to be positioned correctly but I wondered if there is any play in the fixing points so that I may wiggle the wing forward a bit to alleviate the problem?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

[Oldyellow]

Had the same problem on my car, I fixed it by slackening the wing mounting bolt just below the corner of the windscreen (access with the door open) and re-tightening while pressing down on the top edge of the wing. Not sure why it happened but it works fine now
Hope that helps.

[mr2mk1chick]

my first thought was that your door had dropped - but apparently not

Maybe the front end of your car has been bumped (ie in a car park without you knowing) and pushed the wing out of postition.
just loosen the wing bolts a bit to realign it maybe (use somehting on the bolts to free them up too)

[coverco]

There is a bolt at the bottom of the wing under the sideskirt, they are always rotten, perhaps yours has rusted through and so the wing is no longer fixed. I would remove the side skirts and have a look

I had to drill and tap both of these bolts when I did my front end last year

[Lee_MR2]

Snap,

Ive just had the identical problem you had on my passenger side though.

The door hasnt sagged either and I just put it down to the wing being in a rough state

Definately sounds worth it to tweak the bolts a bit.

[Jimbo_Jet]

Maybe the front end of your car has been bumped (ie in a car park without you knowing) and pushed the wing out of postition.

Yeah, I wondered if that might be the case I couldn't see any impact damage but I had washed my car a week of so after the problem started and before I realised what was actually happening. So it was hard to tell it it had been pushed back as there was no dirt to be disturbed my an impact. It's the only thing I can think of tho.

[mr2mk1chick]

Maybe the front end of your car has been bumped (ie in a car park without you knowing) and pushed the wing out of postition.

Yeah, I wondered if that might be the case I couldn't see any impact damage but I had washed my car a week of so after the problem started and before I realised what was actually happening. So it was hard to tell it it had been pushed back as there was no dirt to be disturbed my an impact. It's the only thing I can think of tho.

maybe compare the gaps between the wings and bonnet etc all the way round - its a dead giveaway then.

[SuperRedMR2]

The wing has moved

[Jimbo_Jet]

Had the same problem on my car, I fixed it by slackening the wing mounting bolt just below the corner of the windscreen (access with the door open) and re-tightening while pressing down on the top edge of the wing.

Well, I fixed it this weekend doing pretty much what Old Yellow described, but not after a considerable amount of effing an jeffing while I was doing it! Managed to make the paint problem a lot worse on the door while opening and closing it to test clearance. Crunch Groan!

Fixed now but the wing does bow out slightly beyond the door line to gain it's clearance. Just need to touch up the paint work this weekend but my word, how much foliage did I pull out from behind the wheel liner?!? I've heard people talk about this before but, blimey, I pulled out enough rotten leafage to almost fill a pint glass!

What else I have discovered is that I'm sure my front near side wing is slight smaller than my front offside wing, the one that's clashing with my drivers door! So here's one for you - are the front wings different from MK1a to MK1b?

If so, my front offside must be mK1b on my Mk1a car as it would explain why the opening tolerances (shut lines) are noticeable different to my nearside wing.

[mr2mk1chick]

What else I have discovered is that I'm sure my front near side wing is slight smaller than my front offside wing, the one that's clashing with my drivers door! So here's one for you - are the front wings different from MK1a to MK1b?

If so, my front offside must be mK1b on my Mk1a car as it would explain why the opening tolerances (shut lines) are noticeable different to my nearside wing.

The only difference i knew was the hole for some of the trim on a MK1b wing.
we put a mk1b wing on a mk1a no problem
If i remeber i will measure lengths to compare