Left unchecked, minor inconveniences will usually become major problems in a short amount of time. Such is the case with door hinges. Imagine how many times we open and close our car doors. Because they swing so easily, we tend to forget just how heavy a door is. Loaded with glass and regulators, car doors can approach 100 pounds, and that entire load is carried by two pins in the hinges. Even the best of them will wear out, and when they do, the door is misaligned at best—or won't close at all. Such was the case with this 1999 Suburban we use from time to time as a tow vehicle. The driver-side door hinges were so badly worn, the door would no longer close. We actually toured a few local junkyards looking for replacement hinge parts, but ultimately decided to replace the bushings and pins with new parts from our local Chevrolet dealership. The owner of this Suburban got quotes from body shops that ranged between $250 and $500 to repair the hinges. We rebuilt both front hinges in an afternoon and spent next to nothing on parts. It's nice to come out money ahead.
Parts List Description PN Source Price Door hinge bushing 16632192 GM Parts Direct $2.27 ea. Retainer 25640501 GM Parts Direct 0.91 Pin 15645336 GM Parts Direct 2.48
Here's our forlorn Suburban with its saggy front door. Check out the major misalignment of the style lines from the fender through to the back door.
In this close-up of the top of the door, it's clear how much the door is sagging. The top edge of the door should be flush with the roof and the side should be square with the leading edge of the back door. The owner of this suburban was able to rock the back of the door up and down through about a 20-degree arc.
The work is straightforward: remove the retaining clips from the hinge pins and drive them out of the hinge with a punch. Access is limited, however, so it's good to have a variety punches to use in differing lengths. Several autobody supply companies sell a dedicated punch for this type of work. Search Google for a Steck door-hinge tool to see what it looks like and where to buy it. We were able to get by with just an assortment of regular punches. We had to cut one of the pins in half to remove it because someone had put a really sloppy weld at the top in place of the retaining clip.
Of course, you will need to support the door somehow. We used this Door and Bumper Dolly available from Auto Body Toolmart (PN 1415, $234). It fully supports the door, so we were able to remove both the upper and lower hinge pins at once. The dolly's crank raises and lowers the door in small increments and the base tilts, which allows for the right amount of wiggling to get all the openings in the hinges aligned when reinstalling the pins.
Using the Door and Bumper Dolly was much safer and more convenient than trying to support the door with floor jacks, which have no provisions to hold the door upright. Even with the dolly, it's very helpful to have a helper (with hands, not paws) wrestle the door back into position. Another option would be to lift the door with a strap on an engine hoist.
With the hinge pins removed, use a punch to drive the old bushings out. Comparing the two, you can see how the old bushings were worn to an egg-shaped opening, which allows the doors to sag.
Tap the new bushings into the hinge with a hammer and punch. The shoulder will rest flat on the hinge, as seen here.
The brass hinge bushings are sold separately from the hinge pins. In most cases, you'll be able to reuse your stock pins and just replace the bushings, but we got replacement pins, too, knowing we'd have to cut at least one of them to remove it. It's a good idea to loosely assemble everything first because the top and bottom bushings have different internal diameters, as does the top and bottom of the hinge pin. Make sure you're putting the right bushings in the right spot on the door.
We had to get creative while installing the lower bushings, using a couple of wobble socket extensions and a bolt in a socket to hold the bushing. The socket extensions gave us just enough bend to clear the bottom of the door and tap the lower bushings into place.
With the new bushings in place, all that remained was to drive the hinge pins back in place. It takes a little bit of wiggling the door to get the holes to align, but once back together, our newly rebuilt hinges brought the door right back into alignment. Not bad for an afternoon's work.
