stretched door hinge on w124
 

The front door on my 1994 E300D was caught in a violent wind gust and flew open with a force that has stretched the hinges so there is resistance in closing the door and it needs to be slammed close.
Is there an easy fix or do I need to replace the hinges.
TIA
Regards ETAXI :cool:

The door stop, which limits how much the door opens, should have encountered the bulk of the force rather than the hinge. Can you see if the sheetmetal around the stopper is stretched? You may be able to just remove the stopper and gently reform the sheetmetal around it with a rubber mallet. Or, the stopper itself may be damaged and can be repaired or replaced.

From my observation, the hinges themselves are some of the sturdiest pieces of machined metal anywhere on the car and can't be easily bent.

Of course, your mileage may vary and anything is possible. But personally, I would check out the stopper first...

etaxi, just a note to tell you that you aren't alone with your wind-gust experience. The same thing happened to me a few months ago in my BMW. I parked the car, and pushed open the door like I normally would. As soon as I opened the door, the wind blew the door open so hard I was sure there was sheetmetal damage or damage to the door, based on the loud bang that resulted. I turned out to be very lucky: there was no damage. Still, I felt sick just from the thought of that sound!

Before this happened to me, I never would have imagined the wind could pull a door so violently.

Regards,
Steve