Sagging driver's door

[V1nny]

I started paying more attention to wind noise at highway speeds after reading hilarious posts about wind noise at some 155 mph couple of month ago here. Rubber seal looks fine on my 01 Allroad, but looks like my driver door sits little lower than it should be. I stopped by local body shop, and they suggested replacing upper and lower hinges at some ridiculous price. Any ideas how to check for hinge wear if I really need them replaced? Would it make sense to buy hinges used?

[Racin2redline]

If you try and lift your door up and down and it moves at all your hinges are probably worn somehow. Most likely its a striker adjustment.

[B5in]

If you try and lift your door up and down and it DOESN'T move at all then you can simply leave the door open and put a jack under the door at the furthest point away from the hinges and put a piece of 2x4 or something so the jack doesn't damage the paint or dent the door bottom. Now jack it up a little, let it down and check it, if it's still sagging a little do it again and do it until you get it where you want it but do it a little at a time.

[V1nny]

If you try and lift your door up and down and it DOESN'T move at all then you can simply leave the door open and put a jack under the door at the furthest point away from the hinges and put a piece of 2x4 or something so the jack doesn't damage the paint or dent the door bottom. Now jack it up a little, let it down and check it, if it's still sagging a little do it again and do it until you get it where you want it but do it a little at a time.

I searched for various solutions, and jacking the door, like you described, was really popular fix with older American cars. Did anyone tried jacking door on Audi?

[B5in]

I did it on my Passat & my GTI and if it was a problem on my Allroad I would do the same, it doesn't matter it will work as long as you don't have Lambo door hinges

[julex]

I did adjustment just few days ago, you want to check gaps for uniform width between front of door and front fender and rear of front door and rear door.

Dimension -A- = 3 mm+1/-0 mm (0.118 in. +0.039/-0 in.) - front door to front fender gap
Dimension -B- = 4.5 mm ± 0.5 mm (0.177 in. ± 0.019 in.) - front door to rear door gap
Dimension -C- = 3.5 mm ± 0.5 mm (0.138 in. ± 0.019 in.) - rear door to rear quarter panel gap

Now, I bet you will find out that you're a bit off when you compare top of gap to bottom of gap indicating door sagging.

Per manual you should work from back of car doing the gaps...but let's face it, you're only making the front door level

What you do from there is you loosen TOP hinge bolts fastening it to body of car. Once you do that, the door will most likely not move at all, even if you jack it. What I did next was I took a piece of wood and really smacked the hinge with a sledge hammer behind the wood many many times TOWARDS front of car so that the part of door that meet rear door goes up, and it eventually started moving after cracking paint, I think the car gets painted after aligning the hinges or something like that. I got exact gap I needed and after adjusting the striker so that it closes without any drama I enjoy properly aligned door!

[V1nny]

Yesterday, out of desperation, grabbed bottom edge of the door wearing gym gloves and pulled it up as much as I can. I figured it would only work if door is opened just enough to grab it comfortably, not completely open. It worked, and door lock no longer hit the top of the striker. But the noise did not go away, so i loosened a striker and lightly punched it with the hammer to make the door close tighter, tested then tightened the striker. No more wind noise (at least to 70 mph). Does anyone know how to tighten the door hinges, so this fix lasts?

[julex]

Kind of already posted about it above?

If the hinges are loose on the inside of door, taking out cards and other stuff is in your future.

[mr_dave]

You can also adjust the hinges where they attach to the door. I think it's a T35 and you want to get a wrench that looks like an allen wrench.