A-post door hinge bolt spins

[tkatv4]

Hi All,

Working on adjusting my door unfortunately the front bolt for the lower left door hinge bracket started to spin. It's seemingly not reachable form the back side, since the A-post is hollow here

IMG20250702142501.jpg

Do anybody have an idea how this is constructed? The A-post is apparently glassfiber, but does it also have a steel insert? (...considering to drill from inside the footwell to achieve access. ...Or are there others ways...??)

Br Thomas K-A, Denmark

[dapinky]

Hello, and welcome.

The 4 hinge bolts (2 on each hinge) pass through the fibreglass on the 'A' pillar and into a plate which has 2 captive nuts on it - the plates are accessed from inside the car and behind the carpet/trim under the dashboard.

If you look at the parts book it shows the way that it is constructed - you need page 10.15A, and it is part #15.... or page 10.15 of the LHD parts book, item #108. There may be 1 or 2 shims between the door hinge and the fibreglass to get the panel gaps correct, but the bracket inside is just 1 piece.

[tkatv4]

Hi Dave,

Thank you and thank you for the reply.

Yes, I did study exactly those pages mentioned by you, but they actually don't show the captive plate itself (right?). Also I did pull away the carpet, but couldn't see any signs of the plates. - And since the A pillar has 'thickness' here, I concluded that the captive plate must be inside it.

Can you tell more exactly how to reach it? (...I noticed that some former owner filled foam inside the sills and carpet away you just see this foam where they have big round holes in the metal reinforcement plate that constitutes the inner wall of the sills. - Maybe access is meant to be through those holes?)

Br /tka

Thomas K-A, Denmark

[dapinky]

Hi thomas,

It is many years since I took mine apart, so my memory isn't great. I remember that I had to get my fingers in behind the 'A' Pillar and that there is a cut out section of the fibreglass pillar pretty well level with the hinge position, from the inside edge.

Obviously, my car is a UK RHD version, but if yours is LHD, then the fusebox and other things may be in different places, so may need to be removed. Basically, for the Right side door, I needed to get behind the bonnet release mechanism, and there was a gap to get into the pillar, and on the Left side I had to remove the fuse box from the passenger footwell to remove the carpet and get my hand in that side.

[tkatv4]

Thanks Dave,

I now been studying Tuga's video, where he repairs the inner sill steal section. It has many good shots where one gets a clear view of the foot well area with carpet and sound damping removed. And indeed there seems to be some removable cover behind the fuse box, and it's pretty much at the level of lower door hinge. ...However this cover does simply not exist on my car

Well, but anyway, out of desperation I gave it another shot trying ti remove the offending bolt from outside, and by some miracle I succeded. And the bolt itself turned out to have had it's thread destroyed - So now I have managed to place a new bolt, and things are acceptable (...although mystery still unsolved of course )

Br /tka