Any TSBs for door impingement?

[Imalabil]

I stood in my driveway astounded yesterday. I had just gotten out of the driver's seat and was closing the door while either opening or closing the driver's REAR door and hear this terrible crack--the driver's front door edge had somehow gotten caught on the rear door at some point in its travel and BENT THE TRAILING EDGE OF THE DRIVER'S DOOR INWARD!!:mad:
I don's have any pics since it's at the dealer now. I've heard of interference engines, but interference doors? I've been opening & closing car doors for years and have NEVER run across something so ridiculous.

Has this happened to anyone else, or am I GM's one in a million occurence?
Bill

[WickedMom]

Most likely, one of the doors got overextended and changed the angle or position of that door. I see it on a somewhat regular basis. I suggest turning this claim into the insurance company, as it can be costly to repair. Of course, I havent seen your doors, so that is just based on cars I have seen.

[Imalabil]

WickedMom, I know what you mean about overextending the doors. I had this happen on my Impala when the wind caught the driver's door and I ended up re-shimming to get it realigned. The frustrating thing about this situation is that I can't assign a cause--I wasn't leaning on one of the doors, it was not a windy day, they were not "thrown open", there was nothing in the operation of either front or rear doors that was unusual. It just went BANG and before I knew what was going on I had a bent front door trailing edge. The dealer doesn't have an explanation either and gave me an estimate of over $600 to fix, which would include painting the front door. If I could come up with an explanation or re-create the situation I would push it up the GM chain. The dealer bent the door back enough for the rear door to open, but a visible crease is still there (see pics, which were taken after I touched up the scratched on both front and rear doors). I will see if my dent doctor can do anything with it before contacting my insurance company.

My conclusion--the design of this portion of the car allowed this to happen. Everything was in spec according to the dealer, which means the spec is not forgiving enough to prevent this from happening. I was there and what occurred was within the bounds of normal door operation. I would have loved to have a Holden body engineer standing next to me at that moment, since a customer shouldn't be able to do this to a car.

I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else out there in G8 land.

Bill

[WickedMom]

I have a yukon coming in on Monday that has very similar contact. Really, I still think the rear door was over extended at some point. That could explain why it wasn't suddenly noticed (until the rear door was opened) I don't know of how else the door alignment would change. Pictures make it difficult to see the whole story, but it is probably more than a paintless dent removal guy can do, the lip of the door may prevent easy dent removal.

[Imalabil]

Interesting theory. I'll open both driver's and passenger's doors and see if I can measure a difference in angle vs. the closed front doors.
Bill

[Imalabil]

I think i've got it. When the front door is closed you can push it in by quite a bit, enough to allow it to catch on the rear door if it is open and bend the trailing edge of the front door inward. The passenger side front door is not nealy as "soft" when pushed in and won't catch. When this happened I had swung the front door closed at the instant I opened the rear door.
I'll test this on my other cars and see if pushing the front door in will cause the rear to catch on it when opened.
Bill

[J Wikoff]

I closed my door while the rear door was open the other day, and it made a wierd sound. I took a quick look and didn't see any signs of contact, but couldn't find any. I'll take a closer look later.

[SpeedRacerX]

This happened 2 years back on my Honda Accord Sedan. Driver front door rear edge caught the door molding of the driver rear door front molding and bent the door molding backwards really bad. It was very weird when it happened. I think my front door was opening while my rear door was closing. Something like that. Fortunately, the paint flexed so I was able to glue the molding back down and it was barely noticeable. But it did make me very cautious on how the two doors were opened or closed...

I hope your issue is resolved without much hassle.

[Imalabil]

Second time I'm writing this...why do my quick replys get lost?
The Service Manager was receptive, but his boss was a "what do you expect me to do about it" type. He'll go out of his way to call the Zone Rep or whatever they are called now and "get back with me". He's going though the motions, I can tell. And this from a dealership that is asking me to write GM to save them! I might write GM, but with a different message.
Bill

[Imalabil]

OK, I'm now cautiously optimistic. My dealer had a GM rep come in and take pictures of my car today, and he told me that what happened would be passed on to whoever does body engineering at GM now. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised!
Bill

[J Wikoff]

I couldn't find any damage to my door edge.

[Imalabil]

GRRRRR8 news, GM agreed to fix my door (straighten and repaint) and so I'm G8less until tomorrow. They will examine the door alignment after the bodywork is done, since I don't want a repeat performance. I'll let you all know tomorrow!
Bill

[Imalabil]

I got the car back and it looks good, just like before the incident. I still think the front and rear doors get too close for comfort when the front door is "hyperextended" shut, so I think I will be the one that has to prevent recurrence.
I'm thrilled to have my car back in non-bent form! I'll try and take some pics this weekend. GM, I'm happy with ya.
Also had the door strikes done, and no more creaking.
Bill

[Gordon Freeman]

OK, I'm now cautiously optimistic. My dealer had a GM rep come in and take pictures of my car today, and he told me that what happened would be passed on to whoever does body engineering at GM now. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised!
BillGood luck hope they help you out…

[whitehot09]

Bill, good to hear they are making progress on your issue. My driver side door seems to crack where he hinge is bolted to the frame, did yours do that before this issue?