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I hear a click when opening my driver's side door.

I've been told that it is highly common that the door checks on 993's do this.

There appear to be range of solutions ranging from spot welding (on the cheap side) to removing the fender and putting it back in factory condition from the inside (very expensive, and, I'm told, may result in paintwork being required).

What are most of you guys doing to fix the door check clicking?

It doesn't seem like a huge deal, but I'd like to get it fixed and do it the "right" way.

For those of you who spot welded it, does it look like a mess or is it barely noticeable? Thoughts and pics would be appreciated.

cabrio993

Mine is spot welded and then I used touch-up paint on the weld. It's barely noticeable, or actually noticeable only by those that know that there wasn't a weld there originally.

Also, doing it this way, it'll never break again. You can do the fender removal way and keep it "stock", only to be doing it again at a later time when it breaks again.

If you don't plan to enter you car in Concours competition, welding is the way to go.

FotoVeloce

Mine is busted I'm going to have it spot welded on the outside and then re-do with come touch-up primer then paint. I wish I did not have to deal with it but in teh grand scheme of things it's small potatoes (I hope!)

CN

Wrong...

Mine was welded by the PO and it broke (and clicks). I will probably get it welded again. It may have been a bad weld.

cabrio993

Sorry to hear that. My weld however looks like it will survive the rest of the car.
I'm sure that a hundred years from now, all that will be left of my car is a small ball of rusted weld in a junkyard somewhere...lol

DerivativesGuy

could you stick it with chewed bubble gum or something like that?

sawitt

This is amazing. I've been hearing a click on the driver's door for a while now, not exactly sure when it started. I've only had the car since February 2007. This morning, before driving to work, I put a little lithium grease on the part that slides into the door, assuming it needed to be greased. I finally got a good look at it and found that the metal below the door check in the fender was broken.

So, spot welding is the fix? I've never had anything welded before. What kind of a place would one go to get this welded?

Garth S

TIG weld it by someone very skilled.
Mine was previously repaired by a dufus who had tack welded the fender bracket in place - and had failed again before buying the car. After making an appointment with a welding shop, I carefully ground the paint away (~1/4") from the weld zone and trued the surfaces with a Dremel tool: it is best you do this, for it is time consuming and commercial shops rely on die grinders: there is too little play room for the latter.
Also, make up some shields covered with damp towels if TIG or MIG is used: the flashing slag could easily burn crater holes in the interior.

I also pulled the check stop from the door, and following the mod in pcar.com by Chris, trimmed the compression rubbers to lessen the force required.

This repair will outlast the car .
edit: used TIG, had quoted MIG ... both work

TrackJunke

Maybe I am just being hopefully but I have had the click for atleast year with no sign of breaking of the check strap. I am just careful when opening the door.

V

I have had this problem on my passenger door for quite some time now.. Havn't looked at it closely because my mechanic told me that since you have to strip the whole door to get it fixed, it would be a 1000$ operation.. Since then I havn't given it much thought but welding seems like an alternative

Flying Finn

You can smoothen out the strap arm bumps, that's what I'm doing. Mine doesn't click but I'm going to prevent it breaking.

You won't get the door staying open but I don't need that anyway.

Blue Ocean

If you are clicking, it will only get worse if you don't do something about it. In the mean time, you can cut down the length of two nails and wedge one on either side of the strap until you cann get it welded. This will help reduce the stress on the factory weld in the fender.

Dudley

Blaine S had his check strap fixed locally and the welder did a fabulous job. I am very fussy and I would not have known anything was done if he had not pointed it out to me. PM Blaine for details - I think the guy's shop was in Shrewsbury Ma.

SJB993

A friend of mine (Porsche expert) did mine. He accessed the back of the check strap bracket (via a hole in the pillar) and welded it in place. The hole was then filled with a steel patch welded into place, which was then ground smooth and repainted.

It's a superb job - absolutely no visible evidence that a repair has been made.

M491

It can be a big deal. Depending on what specifically is wrong, you can do a LOT of damage to the car if you don't get it fixed.

if you see the pic of the light blue car above, you can see the pin that holds the arm in place. Sometimes that pin wears out - it can be replaced. Or the arm could possibly wear out, that could be replaced, too, that's done from inside the door, remove the door panel and it's a bolt on/bolt off deal.

But, sometimes the tabs on the door post break free from the door post. The tabs are the two painted light blue tabs in the pic above, that the metal arm connects to and the pin goes through. Open and close the door while closely looking at the tabs, and see if they are moving when you hear the clicking.

If that's the case, they need to be rewelded in place, pronto. I personally would not use the door much anymore, because if the tabs have broken free, you can turn a small welding job into a huge problem in pretty short order.

take it to someone who knows what they are doing so you don't get screwed, either on the diagnosis of the problem or the repair. use a craftsman who knows what he's doing, and you'll get a welded repair that should be completely unnoticeable and have the minimum amount of paintwork done, like the excellent repair to steve's car above.