Sagging driver door

silverad03 · January 17, 2006

My driver-side door is sagging a bit on my 2003 Silverado 1500. I can tell the door isn't lining up perfectly with the latch because I have to slam the door to get it to latch fully. Also, when the door is open about halfway I can lift the door up and feel the play in the hinge.

What type of fix is available for this?

I bought some replacement door hinge bushings at a local auto store, but I have no idea how to go about removing the original bushings or getting the new bushings back in, or if this is the correct approach to fix the problem for that matter. I have also heard that replacement of the hinge is required...is this correct? how does one go about removing/installing the hinge?

I'm looking for not only technical knowledge of how to go about fixing this, but also any practical knowledge anyone may have that has maybe done this before on this body style truck.

I'd sure appreciate any info that could be provided on this! Thanks fellas!

drmwvr · January 18, 2006

I have the same problem with my '00 Sub. I too look forward to any advice.

GM-Tech · January 18, 2006

The body shop does these so I can't help you. I can't even look it up in our service information because it says the hinge has to be replaced and there's no details on replacing just the bushings/pin.

There is a TSB that gives an aftermarket source for the bushing/pin kit, but still no details on replacing it.

silverad03 · January 19, 2006

Thanks, GM-Tech.

I guess I'll have to see if I can talk a body shop guy at a local dealer into giving me some more info about this, hopefully I can find someone that has done this before...

I don't like being the guinea pig, but I may have to tear into it myself and see what happens!

skills4lou · January 20, 2006

Let me preface this by saying that I don't know if the new body style has the same hinges as 88-98 truck. On my 94 the pin/bushing replacement is actually fairly easy, but you have to by a special tool to compress the spring in the hinge. I paid about $18 for the tool, and maybe $3/door for new pins/bushings. Got the supplies from a body shop supply place here in town. The only real hard part was finding a way to support the door while I swapped parts. My solution: a very patient and forgiving wife (Still had to take her out to dinner though!) to balance the door on a floor jack.

If they kept the same style of hinges then you can do it yourself in an afternoon.

05Quadrasteer · January 20, 2006

Follow this link to a discussion on another forum about this exact problem;

http://www.fullsizechevy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190857

Also is your truck still under warrenty?

Have a great day.

Bill

silverad03 · January 21, 2006

Thanks for the link Bill!

That looks like a decent enough write-up of changing the pins and bushings in the hinge. However, that write-up appears to be for an 88-98 body style truck. It appears that the hinges may have changed at least a little bit when the body style changed in 99 because the guys in that thread are talking about removing a spring but there is not a visible spring on my hinges. Otherwise the procedure looks like it might work on my hinges.

Here is a pic of my door hinges, can anyone tell me if the 88-98 hinges look the same? Also..I think the spring mentioned in the above link might be inside the door and connected to the strap you see on the right-hand side of the pic on the NBS trucks. Can anyone who has had their door apart confirm this?

Sorry, I don't know how to rotate the pic, the pic is supposed to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise for the proper orientation...

Thanks for the help fellas!

silverad03 · January 21, 2006

Oh yeah...forgot to mention that my truck IS out of warranty...so I'm out of luck there.

BTW, when I was looking at the hinge, as shown in the above pic, it looks like that bolt that faces toward you in the middle of the hinge can be removed and there's an arm on the other side that goes down and attaches to the top of the lower hinge pin. It looks like I could take that bolt out and pop that arm loose of the hinge pin and I could lift the door right off the hinge pins...it's that strap (and maybe the spring attached to it on the inside of the door?) that has me concerned...

05Quadrasteer · January 22, 2006

Sorry about that link not being much help. I do seem to recall there were other links but older dealing with sagging doors over at www.fullsizechevy.com

Hope you find what you need to get your door fixed. Have a great day.

Bill