Driver's side passenger door misaligned

[Dan198]

After reading a few posts about c point dents and hoods being misaligned, I decided to take a closer look at my EX and noticed that the driver's side rear door window trim seems to be misaligned compared to the front door as well as the rear window. It is higher/off by almost 1/4 inch from the rear quarter of the car body.

The passenger side rear door isn't as bad, but still looks higher but less than 1/8 of an inch.

Does anyone else have this issue?

I'm going to speak with the dealer next week and see if they can adjust it as it just doesn't seem right.

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[mno86]

They've been having fit issues on Civics since 2012. My 2012 Si coupe's passenger door jutted out on the bottom significantly and my 2013 Si's rear driver's door did the same. I was able to have the dealership's body shop partner push it back in a bit. My 2016 seems to be much tighter, but there are still a little bit of non-flush parts on the door to the body. I've relegated myself to living with it. The gap on the driver's side cowel drives me a little nuts though.

 

[Dan198]

They've been having fit issues on Civics since 2012. My 2012 Si coupe's passenger door jutted out on the bottom significantly and my 2013 Si's rear driver's door did the same. I was able to have the dealership's body shop partner push it back in a bit. My 2016 seems to be much tighter, but there are still a little bit of non-flush parts on the door to the body. I've relegated myself to living with it. The gap on the driver's side cowel drives me a little nuts though.

This is really unfortunate. It never occurred to me that I would have this issue with a brand new Japanese car. Perhaps I have been spoiled with the engineering precision of my German cars.

I took another look after posting this thread and I just don't know whether the dealer can do anything as the door hinge is welded to the frame and I didn't see any play where the hinge attaches to the door. I'm really surprised the door actually closes as the latch would also be off.

It really sux because now I know this defect is there and today is only day 5 of owning the car

 

[Dan198]

Just an update after going to the dealer.

Looks like it is a defective process when they are assembling the cars. The SA showed me 3 other CIVICs sitting on the showroom floor and they all have the same issues, some worse than others and some on both rear doors. The SA said others have brought in their cars for the same issue and there is nothing they can do except make a note of it so there is a record that I had brought it in.

I will be putting this into the Honda survey which arrived yesterday.

Oh, my car was built in Alliston fwiw.

 

[inv4zn]

Whatever your dealer told you is not true.

My passenger's rear was misaligned, just like yours - it was most visible when looking down the side of the car standing from the back. Had my salesguy, and service dept. head both confirm, and they sent it to a bodyshop to have realigned, under warranty of course. They had it for a day because as you noted, it's a bit more involved than it seems, but it came back perfect.

Push to get it fixed. OCD or not, having misaligned door panels on a new car is no good lol

 

[sparky79]

Just an update after going to the dealer.

Looks like it is a defective process when they are assembling the cars. The SA showed me 3 other CIVICs sitting on the showroom floor and they all have the same issues, some worse than others and some on both rear doors. The SA said others have brought in their cars for the same issue and there is nothing they can do except make a note of it so there is a record that I had brought it in.

I will be putting this into the Honda survey which arrived yesterday.

Oh, my car was built in Alliston fwiw.

My rear passenger door is off as well. From the looks of your picture, your door might be a little high? My moldings are a little off on this door where my other doors are fine, but my main issue with the door it is that the rear side of the door panel sticks out. You can mainly tell when looking from the rear or when your eyes focus on it when grabbing the door handle. It seems like it just needs to shut/close about 1-2 millimeters more (no issue with the seals though). It is most noticeable to me at the crease line. Not sure if you can adjust the latch mount inwards, but even if I could, I think the rubber bushing is already touching the body as the door does not nudge in easily inwards. It is obvious that panel alignment (or panel build) was not a priority when assembling these cars. I am very hesitant to take it to the dealer for fear they will make it worse or try to redo the hinges (when I do not think that will solve my issue). I would feel better if the honda dealers in my area actually had a body shop, but they do not. I would barely trust them with a roof rack install or a side molding application. Like to know if anybody knows if a latch adjustment is possible. Or if anybody else had the same issue and was actually fixed by the dealer. Otherwise i will likely live with it (it is probably something only I see).

Hopefully my pictures show what I am trying to explain. The third picture is to show that aside from it needing to close a smidgen more, it otherwise seems to be in alignment (vertically).

 

[Dan198]

My rear passenger door is off as well. From the looks of your picture, your door might be a little high? My moldings are a little off on this door where my other doors are fine, but my main issue with the door it is that the rear side of the door panel sticks out. You can mainly tell when looking from the rear or when your eyes focus on it when grabbing the door handle. It seems like it just needs to shut/close about 1-2 millimeters more (no issue with the seals though). It is most noticeable to me at the crease line. Not sure if you can adjust the latch mount inwards, but even if I could, I think the rubber bushing is already touching the body as the door does not nudge in easily inwards. It is obvious that panel alignment (or panel build) was not a priority when assembling these cars. I am very hesitant to take it to the dealer for fear they will make it worse or try to redo the hinges (when I do not think that will solve my issue). I would feel better if the honda dealers in my area actually had a body shop, but they do not. I would barely trust them with a roof rack install or a side molding application. Like to know if anybody knows if a latch adjustment is possible. Or if anybody else had the same issue and was actually fixed by the dealer. Otherwise i will likely live with it (it is probably something only I see).

Hopefully my pictures show what I am trying to explain. The third picture is to show that aside from it needing to close a smidgen more, it otherwise seems to be in alignment (vertically).

sparky - Yours is actually great compared to the issue I'm having. I see what you mean with yours. I'll bet when you push the side of your door, it actually lines up correctly. This was what the advisor at the dealer was doing on all the doors to show me they were all misaligned. When he pushed on the doors, it actually got a lot better.

With mine though, it does look like the door is higher by an eight of an inch from the body but at the top of the frame, it seems to fit well. Now I'm thinking perhaps it's the trim that needs to be adjusted a bit which will make it look better. I dunno.

 

[sparky79]

sparky - Yours is actually great compared to the issue I'm having. I see what you mean with yours. I'll bet when you push the side of your door, it actually lines up correctly. This was what the advisor at the dealer was doing on all the doors to show me they were all misaligned. When he pushed on the doors, it actually got a lot better.

With mine though, it does look like the door is higher by an eight of an inch from the body but at the top of the frame, it seems to fit well. Now I'm thinking perhaps it's the trim that needs to be adjusted a bit which will make it look better. I dunno.

Yes, if I push on it it would appear to align and be fine... so it sounds like what I have is common. Maybe I will swing by my dealer an take a look at a few on the lot as well. For your situation, adjusting the moldings would probably be very problematic (not sure how that would be done). But maybe adjusting your hinges would help your situation. It almost seems that the panels themselves seem to be off in dimension which causes issues when they install them at the factory. I imagine it is hard to align an incorrect panel - so they probably focus on making sure the weather stripping hits at all points. If the moldings could be adjusted, I wonder if it would affect the weatherstripping seals...

 

[Dan198]

Yes, if I push on it it would appear to align and be fine... so it sounds like what I have is common. Maybe I will swing by my dealer an take a look at a few on the lot as well. For your situation, adjusting the moldings would probably be very problematic (not sure how that would be done). But maybe adjusting your hinges would help your situation. It almost seems that the panels themselves seem to be off in dimension which causes issues when they install them at the factory. I imagine it is hard to align an incorrect panel - so they probably focus on making sure the weather stripping hits at all points. If the moldings could be adjusted, I wonder if it would affect the weatherstripping seals...

So I went and pushed down on the trim a bit and it made a marked difference in terms of the misalignment, but it's stil not perfect. The trim moved down quite a bit but will not stay, it seems to spring back up, perhaps the piece was warped when it was manufactured. Unless I can get the dealer to change out the trim piece, I'm just going to leave it as I don't see a way of adjusting the hinge as it is welded to the body.

 

[inv4zn]

@sparky79 this was exactly mine, except the passenger's side. As previously mentioned, my dealership fixed it for free.

It's not just an adjustment of the hinges, it's their angle, as well as the latch on the other side of the door, from what the bodyshop told me. It's definitely possible.

 

[NPCwars]

Does anyone have a final verdict? Is it worth going to the dealer and getting this fixed? Already went in for an A/C check and they dinged my door handle and my car isn't even 1 week old yet.

 

[Gavnzdad]

Just do a variation of my fix.
http://www.civicx.com/threads/civic-door-alignment-quick-fix.3600/

 

[Edmar97]

I had the same problem with my rear driver side door where it was sticking out almost a 1/4 of an inch. I set an appointment with the dealer went in and twenty minutes later it was perfectly aligned. Not only did they fixed the driver side door but they also adjusted passenger side as well which a bit off also, dealer was great and even apologized for having to go in for this. Just saying......

 

[NorthernEX-T]

I had the same problem with my rear driver side door where it was sticking out almost a 1/4 of an inch. I set an appointment with the dealer went in and twenty minutes later it was perfectly aligned. Not only did they fixed the driver side door but they also adjusted passenger side as well which a bit off also, dealer was great and even apologized for having to go in for this. Just saying......

Yep, these are all issues easily corrected free by you're dealer.

 

[Lunar]

My driver's door was actually sticking out maybe one millimeter, just thought I would bring it to the dealer to get it checked out. It wasn't super obvious but I noticed it looking from the back of the car. Was told the wait might be two hours and that it might or might not get fixed. Service adviser also claimed that it's not really considered a manufacturing defect. Twenty minutes later, I get called out by the technician to check out the car. He greatly reduced the gap.

Go to the dealer if you're having a similar issue. It should be covered under your warranty.

The tech also asked where I got my super bright map and dome LEDs but that's another thing entirely

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