Aligning Maxima door

General information about the first-generation Nissan Maxima in the US. What was the Datsun 810 became the luxury leader Maxima in the US in 1981.

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Duaneclark
Posts: 107
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Peyton Colorado

Aligning Maxima door

#1

Post by Duaneclark »

Thought I'd post the alignment of the drivers door on one of my Maxima sedans. This car had the front edge of the door firmly rubbing the rear of the front fender, opening and closing was difficult, with paint popping off also. Looking at the situation, it was clear that the fender was perfectly aligned, but the door was too far forward. So the procedure is to loosen the hinge to body bolts and slide the door rearward. So, without removing the front fender, the only way to reach the bolts is to unbolt the door from the hinges, I also loosened the wiring in the door so you can move the door away 8-12 inches, but didn't disconnect any wiring. I parked another vehicle at the door, so I could bungee the loose door to the adjacent vehicle to keep it stationary. After loosening the hinges, the top hinge did slide rearward enough, but the bottom hinge wouldn't slide rearward enough, so I had to elongate the bolt holes in the lower hinge to achieve the needed movement to the rear. My take on this was that this was a manufacturing defect from new, that the caged nut plate in the body didn't have the proper travel for proper door adjustment, and no one ever corrected the problem during the life of this car. New, the door must have just barely touched the fender, hard to believe that the dealer didn't fix this. Anyway, had to remove about 1/4 inch of material from the hinge, and now the door fits perfect. Wonder if there are other Maxima's out there with this problem? Duane
Duane
Dr. Jones
Posts: 125
Joined: 18 years ago
Location: Raleigh NC

Re: Aligning Maxima door

#2

Post by Dr. Jones »

I had rubbing in the same area, I believe mine was due to an accumulation of debris in the fender. The windshield drain channels everything into the section of fender between the tire and door. Over time I built up enough debris that the fender became taunt and moved closer to the frame causing the door to catch the fender. I just took the fenders off, no more catch issues.
'82 Maxima Sedan x2
'92 Saab 9000 Griffin Edition Wrecked
'80 Ford E100(twisted tranny) SCRAPPED
Duaneclark
Posts: 107
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Peyton Colorado

Re: Aligning Maxima door

#3

Post by Duaneclark »

I'm amazed that this was 5 years ago! Time goes way too fast!
Duane
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