Door Mis-alignment Normal?

[GregH101]

Hi -thanks for adding me to the forum.

I have just bought a late 2011 reg S-Max. We bought from a Ford dealer on Friday and today I have dropped it back with them to sort out a couple of issues. One has been resolved already, but this one also concerns me and' I'd appreciate any advice

The door doesn't close very well. it is slightly dropped when open and needs a fairly hard push to close it. You can feel that it is hitting the latch as it closes. Once closed it lines up OK.

The manager at the dealer has said this is "perfectly normal".

Any thoughts on how I should deal with this. Can the alignment be adjusted or is this an indication of a more serious structural problem?

I have asked by email if there has been accident damage -he has not responded yet.

Door open

door closed

Thanks,

Greg

[gregers]

if its perfectly normal then the other side will be the same.......IS IT???

cool name by the way

[Dan P]

I've just replaced a door on my Mk2 Focus and found lining up the door to be quite straightforward. I don't know if the way that the doors are hung is the same as on my Focus but if it is then here's how I'd do it: there are two bolts attaching the door hinge to the body of the car. If you loosen these two bolts slightly you can adjust the angle that the door hangs just a tiny bit until it lines up properly - unless of course there is some kind of accident damage which is causing the misalignment. It may help if you have someone to support the weight of the door whilst you're doing it. Just move it a little at a time and re-tighten to see if it lines up. Took me a couple of goes to get it perfect but shouldn't take much more than 10 minutes.

[GregH101]

No gregers (nice), it is not. Other doors are all lined up nicely. But I suspect he meant that it is within reasonable tolerance. I disagree with that because it usually takes a couple of attempts to latch the door because it is catching on the way in. I am sure I will get used to slamming it, but that's not really what I want!

[GregH101]

Dan P thanks for the post. That sounds promising. The dealer still has the car and promised he would get their technicians to take a look, so if it is adjustable hopefully they will be able to do it. I am not averse to having a go myself, but since I just bought the car I'd prefer they sorted it. He did provide the paperwork to show that there is no accident damage in the vehicle history report.

So far the manager has been true to his word, despite a bumpy start with the sales guy. I just had to lay it on the line a little to make sure he understood that I will be reporting back via forums and social media, good or bad!