Infinitely adjustable door stops -DIY-

[Hugo_za]

The door stops on the E65 are of the infinitely adjustable kind. This means that the doors should be able to stay open at any angle, unlike the conventional 2 or 3 stops. BUT...BMW in their infinite wisdom decided to use a shitty biodegradable rubber as one of the key components. As this rubber degrades it disintegrates and once completely gone the door stops cease to do their job correctly. You can tell that they are gone when the door makes loud knocking noises when opening and closing. BMW don't sell these rubbers separately so you have to replace the whole hydraulic arm at a cost of R900 excluding vat and labour. The photos show the disintegrated rubber in the door cavity and you can see the eyelet where it once sat. The knocking noise comes from this eyelet knocking on the bolt carrier that secures the whole thing to the door frame. Since I could find anyone that sells industrial rubber to create a new insert I used some dowels to pad the space around the bolt carrier and then filled all the spaces with gasket sealer. Its curing now so tomorrow once its done and installed I will report back on if the repair was successful or not.

 

[sash]

is whats left the redish pieces in the cavity...? how big is this rubber when new.

Really makes you wonder about what the designers were thinking at the time... i guess the newer vehicles were designed with an expiry date.

 

[Hugo_za]

Yup the red pieces are whats left. The size: width 2.5cm, height 4.5cm, depth 2cm.

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What irritates me even more is that this oversight in design costs an arm and a leg while the hydraulic shock is 100% intact, yet repair necessitates complete replacement.

 

[sash]

yes, they make the smallest part fail and force you to repair/replace the entire unit. i am sure there are plenty other parts that are in the same category,

 

[Hugo_za]

Well my makeshift repair works 100%

 

[Loom]

:clapper:

 

[sash]

Great stuff

 

[Hugo_za]

Just an update. Decided to use a new product I discovered at Builders to create new inserts for the door stop arms. Its basically plastic granules that you put in boiling water. It then becomes almost like presstick in texture. You mould it into whatever shape you like and it dries to rock hard plastic The new insert works even better than my previous DIY one with zero movement of either the bolt or shaft.

Sent from Tapatalk, iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[MikeR]

:clapper::clapper:

 

[Peter@AEW]

That is a brilliant DIY thank you.

 

[Ratslaaf]

That's awesome! Thanks for the tip.

 

[ChefDJ]

All the more reason for you to sell me this car in the future :rollsmile:

:chef:

 

[Hugo_za]

Did the driver door today and made a video of the disintegrated rubber and the effect it has on the door stop.

[video=youtube]

 

[Turbo6]

Wow! That's bad. Do you really need to strip everything down to repair?

 

[Hugo_za]

Wow! That's bad. Do you really need to strip everything down to repair?

Yup. There is no way to get to that strut without taking it all apart. Its insane really.


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