I need help diagnosing a problem with my rear passenger door.

[icole]

I just bought a 2005 SR5 V8. It is almost perfect, but I discovered a flaw yesterday when the weather was nice. I had the windows down, and I went to open the right rear door, and it would only open 3 or 4 inches. I rolled the window up and it opened. I texted the old owner to ask if he knew anything, but have not gotten a response.
My theory is that he backed out of the garage with it open. My wife has done this twice with our last two cars. I noticed that the window stops moving smoothly at about 3 inches before it is down. It seems to hang up a bit at the front. Also the door opens fine as long as the window is 3 inches up or higher. Examining it I noticed that the front panel gap is unusually small, and the one at the back of the door is large compared to the drivers side. I suspect that the hinges are bent causing the window to interfere with the door stay/brake. The problem is that I don't want to wast money on new hinges, and time installing them to discover that I am wrong.

I tried searching the forum, but every thread I get is about the lift gate, so I searched rear speaker install, but looking at the pictures even if I remove the door card, I am not going to be able to see the window and door stay/brake

 

[icole]

More research suggests the part that might be interfering is called a door check. a set of hinges is about $70. I'm thinking I should try putting some washers in to see if it fixes the problem. If it does then I can order the hinges, or just leave the washers and save $70.

 

[preacher35]

More research suggests the part that might be interfering is called a door check. a set of hinges is about $70. I'm thinking I should try putting some washers in to see if it fixes the problem. If it does then I can order the hinges, or just leave the washers and save $70.

[MENTION=123840]icole[/MENTION], Yes, you are definitely having an issue with the "door-check". My guess is that the previous owner "hyper-extended" the door at some point which damaged said door-check. This happened to my '05 and had the EXACT same symptoms that you are experiencing. I doubt you will have to replace the hinges. You will, however, probably have to replace the door check (which runs about $70.00 to $80.00 for the OME part) and is a relatively straight forward procedure (assuming that you do not mind reaching your hand deep into the dark crevices of your door internals and have no fear of spiders). Good luck!

 

[icole]

I guess this is the one downside of finding a garage kept car. The hinges did seam to get bent slightly, but when the window is up the door works, so A new door check should solve it. You didn't by any chance take a picture of the damaged part? I would like to visualize what change of shape has caused this issue.
If I fix it I might as well order some upgraded speakers too.

 

[icole]

I replaced the hinges and door check. Now the panel gaps are correct, and the door opens with the window down, but the window still hangs up 3" before it is down and now it makes a noise as it passes the door check in fact the binding sounds much worse now. When I get a chance I'm going to have to open up the door again. The driver side window switch does not work when the door panel is removed, so I will need to do it when I have a helper, or I will have to remove the switch from the door card.