This kind of problem really bothers me because it should never happen on a well made car. I got my Rogue back in July and have been very happy with it until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed some strange damage on the driver's door.
Walking up to the car I noticed two "imperfections" on the very leading edge of the driver's door. As I got closer, I saw that they were a little more than imperfections, they were two notches bent into the leading edge of the door as if something pushed out on the metal from the other side of the door like a can opener. Looking for a reason for this, I opened the door slowly and watched the leading edge disappear into the area behind the fender. As the door approached full open, I saw the culprits. The hinge fittings that hold the door onto the car were actually in the way of the opening door. (not anymore, because the door metal has been pushed outward). There was never enough clearance for the door to be fully opened.
I checked the passenger door and it seemed impossible to get the leading edge of that door near enough to the hinges to cause any damage. Later, I had the car at home and measured the gap between each door's leading edge and the fender. On the driver's door, the one with the problem, the front gap at its narrowest point is only .085 of an inch. On the passenger door side, that gap never gets smaller than .150 of an inch. Suspecting that the driver's door was positioned too far forward I measured the gap at the rear of both doors and, while the passenger door's aft gap was similar to the forward gap, the aft gap on the driver's door is huge in comparison. So, I'm pretty sure that the driver's door was positioned incorrectly in the door opening from the factory.
The question now is what do I do about it? I suspect that any "cure" for this could turn out to be worse than the initial notches. Actually the lower notch is worse than the one caused by the upper hinge. You could actually tear your clothes (or skin) on the lower notch. I suspect that "fixing" this will require straightening of the metal which will probably cause additional paint damage and nothing will be truly fixed unless the door can be repositioned. Trusting this kind of work to the dealer (at least my dealer) is worrisome at best. This is the same dealer who, after installing the trailer hitch for me, couldn't figure out how to put the interior trim back together at the base of the rear hatch. I had to take it all apart and put the trim back together correctly myself. Once I got the trim up, I discovered that they had left steel shavings everywhere under the trim and I was not very happy with their work.
So, if this was your Rogue, what would you do?
Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully!
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philipa_240sx
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully! (kgantz)
Sounds like a quality control issue as you are the first to report this problem. Perhaps there is an out of tolerance part or a mfg. error with your Rogue.
I would have your dealer inspect this immediately. Hopefully they don't brush it off as 'driver error'!
I would have your dealer inspect this immediately. Hopefully they don't brush it off as 'driver error'!
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully! (kgantz)
I took some pictures of the damage today. They are at < http://www.flickr.com/photos/k...etail/ >.
In doing some more measuring and comparing between the driver's and passenger's doors, there is almost 4 times as much space between the leading edge of the door and the hinge body, with the doors fully open, on the passenger's side versus the driver's side. The fit of the driver's door looks a little different, (gap is not uniform all the way around the closed door) but the door has always opened and closed just fine. It's going to the dealer tomorrow but, on the phone, they were already trying to tell me that what I'm seeing is impossible without the car having been in an accident or being abused in some way. Oh really..? There is not a mark anywhere on the car except for the two spots damaged by the hinge. I think I may have been causing small amounts of damage every time I've opened that door fully for the 2.5 months that I've owned it.
In doing some more measuring and comparing between the driver's and passenger's doors, there is almost 4 times as much space between the leading edge of the door and the hinge body, with the doors fully open, on the passenger's side versus the driver's side. The fit of the driver's door looks a little different, (gap is not uniform all the way around the closed door) but the door has always opened and closed just fine. It's going to the dealer tomorrow but, on the phone, they were already trying to tell me that what I'm seeing is impossible without the car having been in an accident or being abused in some way. Oh really..? There is not a mark anywhere on the car except for the two spots damaged by the hinge. I think I may have been causing small amounts of damage every time I've opened that door fully for the 2.5 months that I've owned it.
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paulvanharte
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Carbon Silver
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully! (kgantz)
Its too bad you did not notice it sooner. Its always easy for the dealer to come up with an excuse when you have had the car for 2.5 months before bringing it to the dealers attention. You never know what may have happened to the car in transit. I have heard of horror stories were cars were severly damaged while in transit from Japan to the US/Canada and they just fix them and sell them as new.
Paul
Paul
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully! (kgantz)
Showed the pics to a body man..YOU may have had a accident causing partial frontal collapse(rogue is designed to do that). If you check underneath you will also find tell tale crinkling of the uniframe.
If you don't find the other associated damage it may be just a mechanical thing like even using the wrong hinge or maladjusted overcenter stop.
My guess it was the later and not your fault.. just a QC problem.
Get it to a certified bodyman and have him state that it was PRIOR damage.
Looks like you have case for a new door at the minimum.
If you don't find the other associated damage it may be just a mechanical thing like even using the wrong hinge or maladjusted overcenter stop.
My guess it was the later and not your fault.. just a QC problem.
Get it to a certified bodyman and have him state that it was PRIOR damage.
Looks like you have case for a new door at the minimum.
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully!
Took it to the dealer this morning. I was met by 3 different service people and one had an ancient digital camera. Oddly enough, he just carried the camera around and never used it. He did, however, try to convince me that I had somehow bent the door.
At that point I showed them a measuring tool I had made out of a wooden dowel which proved that both doors open the same exact amount in the front, as measured across the sliding black door open max extension stop (wish I knew the correct name for that thing) but yet the driver's side has about .100" clearance between the bent metal and the door hinges (IE I think the clearance was near zero before the hinge bent the metal out of the way) while the passenger side has roughly .410" of an inch clearance. I also demonstrated that when shutting the driver's door with the window rolled down you can hear a "pranging" / window rattle noise but on the passenger side you just hear a nice thud.
I do not envy their position either because, assuming that the doors are identical in size, it seems impossible that one would have such small clearance to the hinge in the open position and the other door would be fine. Ironically, I, and they, are the only ones to ever operate that door. A few people have operated the passenger door but the driver's door has only ever been used by me and people at their dealership.
@mstrmstr, there is no evidence of any wrinkling anywhere on the car. Also, since the door is bolted to the hinge, which is then bolted to the frame of the car, I'd think that any sort of "frontal collapse" would move the door frame, hinges and door together, maintaining the front gap but pushing the entire door rearward making the clearance on the back of the door smaller. The gap on the back of the door is actually larger as if the door, and just the door, has moved forward.
Lastly, I said the car was 2.5 months old. It's really 4 months old. The summer went by faster than I realized!
At that point I showed them a measuring tool I had made out of a wooden dowel which proved that both doors open the same exact amount in the front, as measured across the sliding black door open max extension stop (wish I knew the correct name for that thing) but yet the driver's side has about .100" clearance between the bent metal and the door hinges (IE I think the clearance was near zero before the hinge bent the metal out of the way) while the passenger side has roughly .410" of an inch clearance. I also demonstrated that when shutting the driver's door with the window rolled down you can hear a "pranging" / window rattle noise but on the passenger side you just hear a nice thud.
I do not envy their position either because, assuming that the doors are identical in size, it seems impossible that one would have such small clearance to the hinge in the open position and the other door would be fine. Ironically, I, and they, are the only ones to ever operate that door. A few people have operated the passenger door but the driver's door has only ever been used by me and people at their dealership.
@mstrmstr, there is no evidence of any wrinkling anywhere on the car. Also, since the door is bolted to the hinge, which is then bolted to the frame of the car, I'd think that any sort of "frontal collapse" would move the door frame, hinges and door together, maintaining the front gap but pushing the entire door rearward making the clearance on the back of the door smaller. The gap on the back of the door is actually larger as if the door, and just the door, has moved forward.
Lastly, I said the car was 2.5 months old. It's really 4 months old. The summer went by faster than I realized!
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully! (kgantz)
Take it to a bodyman who has NO vested interest for his opinion on paper.
Defects in materials and workmanship rules come into play here- the dealer still has to fix it!!!
Defects in materials and workmanship rules come into play here- the dealer still has to fix it!!!
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully!
Well, for the sake of closure, I guess I should wrap this up. I'm going to have to chalk it up to the "Life aint fair" department. It took the dealer about 4 hours of looking at the door. They finally stripped it down to the metal, removed the speaker, all of the trim and switches, etc. They still couldn't see anything obvious. They finally called someone from the body shop over and he discovered the problem in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, they classified the problem as "damage" so they wouldn't fix it under warranty. I would agree that there is damage but it is "perfect damage" in that no paint is wrinkled, there are no cracks or signs of any sort of accident or abuse.
They called me to the dealership while everything was stripped down because they knew I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it apart. The black arm that slides out of the door as the door is opened has a thick rubber washer and a fixed steel disk, like a metal washer, at the end of the arm inside the door. As the door opens, the arm slides out of the door until the rubber washer makes contact with the door frame inside. This is what stops the door (hence the name) at its max opening angle. On my driver's door, the part of the door where the stop makes contact is bowed out. This bowing isn't obvious until you see it without the trim in the way. Because it's bowed in the direction the stop travels, and right at the point where the stop makes contact, it gives the door the opportunity to travel further. The dealership says that the only way that part of the door could bow out like that is if the door was "hyper extended" to the extent that it wanted to keep opening and the stop, being at the end of its travel, literally pulled the metal to the point where it bowed. Things that could cause this are backing up with the door open and catching something, or having the door caught by the wind and slamming open. Neither of these events happened on my watch. I can't prove that either ever happened at the dealership either. I, the dealership, the manufacturer and people involved in the transport of the vehicle are the only ones who've ever operated that door. I agree that it is damaged so Nissan is never going to pay for something like that.
If I had to guess how this may have happened, I would guess that it probably happened somewhere during its transportation. It was just major enough to close the gap between the door skin and the hinge but not actually blemish the metal. After that, whenever the door was opened to the maximum, it was probably being stopped by the door skin. Over the course of 4 months, it was enough to finally show up on the door's leading edge skin. The pictures (earlier post) make the blemishes look larger than they really are. I had them order me some touch-up paint and I will just seal them up and be very careful with the door. They recommended I file an insurance claim and use the money to get the door fixed (which sounded dumb to me) so I called my insurance company and asked them about it. They wanted to know what was the date and nature of the accident and I told them I had no idea. They told me to go away which is pretty much what I expected.
I think the fact that I don't know how the damage was done bothers me more than the damage itself. I also find it amazing that a rubber & metal stop could inflict that much damage on such a narrow piece of steel with no signs of cracked paint or stress. It is pretty much paper thin steel though so I guess this is what one gets when they try to save weight and money.
Mind your doors, you'll be glad you did...
They called me to the dealership while everything was stripped down because they knew I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it apart. The black arm that slides out of the door as the door is opened has a thick rubber washer and a fixed steel disk, like a metal washer, at the end of the arm inside the door. As the door opens, the arm slides out of the door until the rubber washer makes contact with the door frame inside. This is what stops the door (hence the name) at its max opening angle. On my driver's door, the part of the door where the stop makes contact is bowed out. This bowing isn't obvious until you see it without the trim in the way. Because it's bowed in the direction the stop travels, and right at the point where the stop makes contact, it gives the door the opportunity to travel further. The dealership says that the only way that part of the door could bow out like that is if the door was "hyper extended" to the extent that it wanted to keep opening and the stop, being at the end of its travel, literally pulled the metal to the point where it bowed. Things that could cause this are backing up with the door open and catching something, or having the door caught by the wind and slamming open. Neither of these events happened on my watch. I can't prove that either ever happened at the dealership either. I, the dealership, the manufacturer and people involved in the transport of the vehicle are the only ones who've ever operated that door. I agree that it is damaged so Nissan is never going to pay for something like that.
If I had to guess how this may have happened, I would guess that it probably happened somewhere during its transportation. It was just major enough to close the gap between the door skin and the hinge but not actually blemish the metal. After that, whenever the door was opened to the maximum, it was probably being stopped by the door skin. Over the course of 4 months, it was enough to finally show up on the door's leading edge skin. The pictures (earlier post) make the blemishes look larger than they really are. I had them order me some touch-up paint and I will just seal them up and be very careful with the door. They recommended I file an insurance claim and use the money to get the door fixed (which sounded dumb to me) so I called my insurance company and asked them about it. They wanted to know what was the date and nature of the accident and I told them I had no idea. They told me to go away which is pretty much what I expected.
I think the fact that I don't know how the damage was done bothers me more than the damage itself. I also find it amazing that a rubber & metal stop could inflict that much damage on such a narrow piece of steel with no signs of cracked paint or stress. It is pretty much paper thin steel though so I guess this is what one gets when they try to save weight and money.
Mind your doors, you'll be glad you did...
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
I saw the pictures of your Rogue on Flickr.
I have a 2012 Rogue purchased New November of 2011.
I have the exact same hinge damage to the driver door.
The dealer says this could have been from opening the door when parking on a steep hill or getting caught in a very strong wind.
I don't live in San Francisco (steep hill) and have had no Tornadoes(strong wind) in this area.
I am very disappointed with the dealers response.
Nissan has designed a very poor over travel mechanism or whatever they call the part that is supposed to keep the door from opening to far and contacting the hinges.
I have a 2012 Rogue purchased New November of 2011.
I have the exact same hinge damage to the driver door.
The dealer says this could have been from opening the door when parking on a steep hill or getting caught in a very strong wind.
I don't live in San Francisco (steep hill) and have had no Tornadoes(strong wind) in this area.
I am very disappointed with the dealers response.
Nissan has designed a very poor over travel mechanism or whatever they call the part that is supposed to keep the door from opening to far and contacting the hinges.
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Rogue One
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
IMO the Rogue arm rest suffers a serious design flaw, as it's a fully padded surface. Every other vehicle I've owned had an indent in the center of the arm rest making it easy to grab on windy days. The rogue's actual door handle is too far forward to grab hold of if caught by a gust of wind, which I discovered several months ago when a wind gust caught my door and I wound up with a 4" dent along the edge of the door. I'll have to check more thoroughly for any damage to the hinge area.
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ImStricken06
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
my SL came with this door edge trim from day 1.(its on the part of the door that swings out.)
just put it on your part that has the damage, and call it a day.
you have to understand, EVERY DOOR will swing in the wind, and some doors catch more wind, and some dont. some are heavier and harder to move, some are lighter(like the rogues) and the light ones end up swinging in the wind easily/wildly.
i cant stop my door from closing back on my leg, half the time.
the government mandated cars conform to certain EPA standards, and here you have it. cheaper products = lighter weight. lighter weight = better epa standards / mpg numbers. WAIT TILL PEOPLE START DYING BECAUSE CARS ARE GOING TO BE MADE FROM FULL PLASTIC, LIKE THE WAY SATURN DID(then you wont be worried about 2 little dings lol)
saturn had all plastic body panels.(no metal)
just put it on your part that has the damage, and call it a day.
you have to understand, EVERY DOOR will swing in the wind, and some doors catch more wind, and some dont. some are heavier and harder to move, some are lighter(like the rogues) and the light ones end up swinging in the wind easily/wildly.
i cant stop my door from closing back on my leg, half the time.
the government mandated cars conform to certain EPA standards, and here you have it. cheaper products = lighter weight. lighter weight = better epa standards / mpg numbers. WAIT TILL PEOPLE START DYING BECAUSE CARS ARE GOING TO BE MADE FROM FULL PLASTIC, LIKE THE WAY SATURN DID(then you wont be worried about 2 little dings lol)
saturn had all plastic body panels.(no metal)
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Rogue One
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
Yea, yea, I know. Took Rogue One to a local shop that charged me $150 to hammer it back into shape. Really wasn't that noticable (didn't show in the before fotos I took), just bugged me. As for it swinging back, that's why mines got scuff marks as it shut on my leg once.
Had a '92 Saturn SL 1 for 12 years so I know all about plastic body parts, but seriously... WTF happened to that one???
Had a '92 Saturn SL 1 for 12 years so I know all about plastic body parts, but seriously... WTF happened to that one???
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ImStricken06
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
todays article
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/auto-indu ... 47087.html
the article states, what i predicted months before.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/auto-indu ... 47087.html
the article states, what i predicted months before.
"Automakers have been experimenting for decades with lightweighting, as the practice is known, but the effort is gaining urgency with the adoption of tougher gas mileage standards. To meet the government's goal of nearly doubling average fuel economy to 45 mpg by 2025, cars need to lose some serious pounds."
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Unicorn
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Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefull
There are better places to lose weight than the doors... the hood and trunk/hatch for instance. And if you go with lighter door panels, you can use stronger cross bars for safety.
Of course, I also expect one of the methods to lose weight but keep up strength will be to use stronger materials that of course cost more. More composites made from aramids or Dyneema.
Of course, I also expect one of the methods to lose weight but keep up strength will be to use stronger materials that of course cost more. More composites made from aramids or Dyneema.
Re: Potential Damage Saver - Check your front doors carefully!
same issue on 2011 Rogue, 2 places where it dented , driver door, just like the flickr pictures... is this a design issue? never accidented, maybe high winds caused this in the winter still it should be built to tolerate such winds.... whats the solution.... I have no idea....
Anyone taken apart the door to look at the door check... dealer said the design has not changed....
Anyone taken apart the door to look at the door check... dealer said the design has not changed....