Thread: Rear door realignment.

Originally Posted by FNQLR

The rear door on my old girl had dropped a fair bit - Zero clearance between it and the rear bumper.

All good - I'll just loosen the hinges and jiggle it up...

Yeah didn't work - had a mate helping, pry bars, beer, packers - nothing really helped. We got it a bit better- it now seals and I cant hear the exhaust as much, I don't fall asleep on long drives anymore - but is still very close to the bumper on closing.

What am I missing with this thing? Any tips appreciated. It still needs to come up 5mm to be back to factory.

Cheers

If it’s anything like mine it needs new hinges. The weight of the spare bends them eventually. Have a good look at the bottom one cos it’s usually the worst. I suppose you could try and bend it back but it won’t be easy.

Or maybe the door frame itself is bent I guess, but my money is on the hinges.

Maybe I’ll try to fix mine ☹️

LRC1099 - Upper and Lower Tailgate Hinge for Discovery 1 and Discovery 2 - Top Hinge for 300TDI and TD5 Disco

Hi

you can also adjust the bumper down as well, which I did on a previous D2. A long time ago my boss showed me how to "adjust" a door by forcing it up. A panelbeater i knew frowned upon the practise as it stresses the door shell and can lead to cracking on the door around the hinge area. It would be nice to have a rear door hinge with grease points as my hinges always get stiff with internal rust.

Your panel beater friend was right. Lifting the door only bends it, it doesn’t fix the far more rigid hinges. With mine it clearly doesn’t close properly unless slammed, and it therefore puts stress and damage on the lock and striker. This also makes it harder to open and D2 rear door locks are a PITA to get and fit.
Short term fix is to remove the spare wheel, but that has issues of its own.

Actually this has inspired me to take mine out and see if they can be straightened. I’m reluctant to use heat but I can use my porta power as a press maybe. Worth a try.