General That damn door handle hinge!

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General That damn door handle hinge!

Thanks guys!
I have a can of silicone grease complete with an applicator tube thingy. :)

So .............. the problem is that the steel(?) hinge pin is in a poor quality non anodised aluminium(?) hinge assembly. If I've guessed correctly, it's a "dissimilar metals" problem. Steel and aluminium don't mix very well and both corrode PDQ, then the hinge seizes suddenly due to corrosion deposits getting trapped, and the hinge assembly snaps all too easily.

Ok, it's my next job. Silicone spray.

I wonder if the door catch is used more frequently, it'll be less likely to seize? Therefore the passenger side is more likely to snap?
I also wonder if it's a "winter salt on the roads" problem too?

Thanks muchly,
Mick.
 
Mick, I think most people have had the driver's side break. I've seen pictures of the offending part somewhere, and far from being anodized aluminium it looks like it's made from reconstituted Dinky toys.
 
Mick, I think most people have had the driver's side break. I've seen pictures of the offending part somewhere, and far from being anodized aluminium it looks like it's made from reconstituted Dinky toys.

Yup, probably made of a low melting point diecast zinc/aluminium alloy of the Zamac/Mazak type, which is exactly what Dinky toys were made from. Anyone with a scrap hinge could test this quite easily as mazak will melt in the heat of a calor gas blowtorch flame.

If there are any impurities in the alloy, it will disintegrate over time of its own accord, which is what happened to many mazak wheels on prewar tinplate trains. Moisture and contact with ferrous metals will guarantee failure due to galvanic corrosion.

Basically it's a c**p design.
 
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Mick, I think most people have had the driver's side break. I've seen pictures of the offending part somewhere, and far from being anodized aluminium it looks like it's made from reconstituted Dinky toys.
I did say non anodised ........... so it could very well be made from reconstituted Dinky toys. :D :D
 
Here's a picture of the broken one today. No rust, obviously not steel as there is no corrosion whatsoever.

Took me about 45 minutes to do following the how to in the guide section.

Only thing I did differently was instead of releasing the door release cable on the interior handle. I took the interior handle off by releasing the three screws securing it.

I also put a piece of Bluetac behind the peg that fits into the exterior handle to make sure it stayed put while I did the screw up. A bit fiddly as it says in the guide. I reckon in future I can do it in less than half an hour.

I know there will be a next time too!!
 

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Good idea. That replacement hinge on ebay looks good value and appears to be some sort of plated metal. I might buy one and swap out the driver's side as "preventative maintenance".
 
Almost half the price of the Fiat replacement one too!

Look at that ebay link again - it's a genuine Fiat part being sold by a franchised dealership!

The picture in the link clearly shows it's a diecast Zinc/Aluminium alloy with a steel pin; the bronze colour is a passivating chromate coating to improve corrosion resistance; this type of coating is often used on Zamac alloys.

If you apply a waterproof grease to the moving part of the hinge before assembly, it'll last a whole lot longer.
 

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That looks different from the one I bought that I've just fitted. Mine was in a little bag with a label that I didn't really pay much attention to, but could well have been a proper Fiat one.

It is working and took me little time to fix it. I'm now opening the door rather gingerly on the other 500 now. Really don't want that one to go too.
 
So, there was me reading this thinking ours were fine and the drivers door has gone today. Doesn't look too difficult to do so going to nip to the dealers in the morning to get one of the repair hinges :rolleyes:
 
£8.99 and about 1/2 hour later and the the broken door hinge has been replaced. Found a video on you tube which gave a rough outline of what to do which made it much easier. Agree that it is a crap design but at least it is a cheap and simple job to sort it. (y)

Did make me smile though when I asked for the part and the parts guy laughed and said "oh we always have plenty of them in stock" says a lot doesn't it !!
 
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The genuine Fiat part looks exactly the same design so expect it to fail again at some point. When I stripped down the door card the insulating covering that is under the door card was untouched and intact which would suggest that the hinge had never been done before and our car is nearly 4 years old.
 
Can I just confirm if the revised Fiat part number suffers that same fate & will also break eventually?

The genuine Fiat part looks exactly the same design so expect it to fail again at some point.

The part fails because of a fatigue fracture in the part of the hinge that's made from Zamac; this fatigue is made much worse if the hinge pin becomes stiff due to corrosion. The steel part of the new type has an anticorrosive coating, but as to whether this will stop the pin from sticking, only time will tell.

If the pin is lubricated with a corrosion-inhibiting grease when the new part is fitted, the repair will likely last the life of the car; if it is assembled dry (as most will be if the job is entusted to a garage), I'd say it's likely to fail again at some point.
 
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