Not a happy Camper....

[Ratical2]

My driver side door spring/detent hasn't worked for some time. Tonight when I was opening the door, it popped and then swung open with a crack.
I was trying to figure out what caused it, then I saw the front of my door. Upon opening the door, the spring broke into 2 pieces. One of them remained attached to the hinge. The other piece then fell down into the door gap and damaged the door skin as the door continued to open.

I am not happy that a failure of one piece led to the damage of another, nope, not happy at all!

This picture shows the broken spring piece as well as the damage that it caused.

 

[eucharistos]

ouch man, i feel your pain

sorry that happened to you

 

[MAVPR]

That just *****! Not that it will make you feel any better but you are not alone with this happening to you, it happened on my first Viper and I believe it has happened on others.

Feel bad for you

 

[Zentenk]

Mine is missing when I bought it, I guess the guy got lucky with it not damaging the door. What a piece of crap, some clever ***** needs to get punched.

 

[AFL in NJ]

Ken, thats horrible, so sorry to hear that...what now?

Regards,
Aaron

 

[Ratical2]

After seeing all the other owners with door detent issues, I had been mulling over the idea of redesigning/ remaking the hinge spring with the proper metal and temper to create a repair kit. I definitely know what can happen if you get it wrong. This is the second door detent failure I have had. The first was with another Chrysler product, a 94 LHS. At least when the spring failed it didn't damage anything. Maybe the guys at Chrysler need to spend a little more money on engineering and quality control to get a properly made detent produced!

Aaron, what else can I do but fix it. At least it won't get worse. It is just frustrating.

 

[Fatboy 18]

My Drivers door spring broke last year just like yours has, luckily it gave me a bit of a warning with some very loud cracking noises as I attempted to get out of my door, I ended up getting out of the passenger side after carefully getting over the center console! I ended up removing the side cover and drilling out the rivet that held the door springs. Its a bit of a pain holding the door open all the time but I'm dammed if I'm going to buy a whole new door hinge just because that sprung metal broke.
I would be interested to know if there is a easy fix to this problem

But If anyone is reading this who still has their sprung steel hinges intact I would recommend a fresh bit of grease on the hinge to help maintain life

 

[moparracing]

My driver side door spring/detent hasn't worked for some time. Tonight when I was opening the door, it popped and then swung open with a crack.
I was trying to figure out what caused it, then I saw the front of my door. Upon opening the door, the spring broke into 2 pieces. One of them remained attached to the hinge. The other piece then fell down into the door gap and damaged the door skin as the door continued to open.

I am not happy that a failure of one piece led to the damage of another, nope, not happy at all!

This picture shows the broken spring piece as well as the damage that it caused.

very similar to what happened to me..... i FEEL your pain.

 

[GTS-R 001]

HAd the same thing happen to me with the RT10 I had a the time

 

[EllowViper]

Exactly what happened to mine....but I was doing stripes anyways and fixed the chipped door at the same time. WOnderful design eh??

 

[jmasin]

Yikes! Sorry to hear/see.

Looks like I've got a time bomb in the garage... better inspect mine.

Hope you get her fixed up good as new!

 

[plumcrazy]

I had the same thing happen 5 years ago. Easy but costly fix to do correctly

 

[eucharistos]

......But If anyone is reading this who still has their sprung steel hinges intact I would recommend a fresh bit of grease on the hinge to help maintain life

i keep mine greased for this very reason, good advice fatboy

 

[Solid Red 98]

Very irritating. I had one snap when a Viper tech opened the door to move the car into the shop. I ran over and yelled STOP before any damage could be done, as I heard the beginnings of a crunching noise. Good thing he froze. We could see the metal getting ready to do just what happened to you. I wanted to blame him, but it was what it was. I got a used hinge, and now inspect it periodically.

 

[Ricketts]

Man that *****, sorry to hear.

 

[costanZo]

Wow, I never knew about this... I also have a 96 GTS with almost 28,000 miles on it. Is this just something that commonly happens with aging of the car in general?

 

[Ratical2]

Me, too! I didn't know that this was such a widespread problem until I posted this. At least I am not alone. Maybe we should form a support group! We could call it, "Unhinged Anonymous"!

 

[Steve-Indy]

As posted before, I have had good success using white lithium grease on these hinges...AT LEAST once a year.

 

[Red Shift]

Wow. I had no idea this was so common. Add me to the list.

 

[rpm9000]

Both of my doors were popping when you opened them. So I took the covers off and greased them about a week ago. No more popping! Hopefully they will last a long time.

 

[vancouver-gts]

Owned quite few Mopars myself, not surprised at all. The door hinge on my 72 Challenger lasted only two years before I had to replace it.The doors are long and heavy on the Challenger and Cuda, yet Chrysler used a puny 1/4" pin in the hinges.They're cleaver peeps knowing how to make our cars light.

 

[Dom426h]

This problem has Nothing to do with lubing the Hinge of the door.(yes you should still periodicaly lube the hinge though)
The Stay(thats what its called) works independantly of the hinge. Lube the stay and somtimes it wont stay open as it works partly with friction.

 

[Camfab]

This problem has Nothing to do with lubing the Hinge of the door.(yes you should still periodicaly lube the hinge though)
The Stay(thats what its called) works independantly of the hinge. Lube the stay and somtimes it wont stay open as it works partly with friction.

That is correct, but it's better to lube it and not have it break. I coincidentally lubed that exact part last week, because I heard a metallic grinding sound as I closed or opened the door. Lube it or lose it.

 

[jmasin]

This problem has Nothing to do with lubing the Hinge of the door.(yes you should still periodicaly lube the hinge though)
The Stay(thats what its called) works independantly of the hinge. Lube the stay and somtimes it wont stay open as it works partly with friction.

Guys, sorry, I'll volunteer for the idiot of the day award...

But can someone post an image of exactly where we are talking? I'm not in front of the car, and haven't gone poking around in the door hinge area yet... will it be obvious when I get home and look?

protection suit on LOL

 

[Ron]

As Camfab said, lube it or lose it.
Like Steve-Indy, an annual to-do.

You must be registered for see images attach

...

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Craig]

Same exact thing happened to my driver side door last fall. I was furious beyond belief. But at that point the damage had already been done. It doesn't bother me that the door no longer remains open, but I still need to get the lower edge of the door fixed and touched up.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Good news is the hinge is a $100 fix. Bad news is the door is gonna be way more than 10x that. My broke and just fell down and did not hurt anything. Maybe I'm lucky.

 

[Grisoman]

As Camfab said, lube it or lose it.
Like Steve-Indy, an annual to-do.

Great pics, but I don't see how lubing as shown prevents or minimizes spring fatigue failure . . . please explain. If I understand the door workings correct, you've got a rectangular bar that presses against the face of the spring when the door is opened and all you're accomplishing is lubing that contact patch.

 

[Ron]

My supposition is that as the friction area delubes and gets crudded up, the friction between the two becomes great enough to push/pull stress the spring in ways that accelerate it's departure from the hinge. While a properly cared for spring might eventually depart anyway, there are enough examples of unmaintained springs leading to damaged doors to make the cause and effect connection for me.

 

[Steve-Indy]

As hinted above...there is more to it than just lube...especially when installing a new hinge...as one must hone and de-burr the sharp edges before installation or the new hinge may last for only a couple of door openings.