Slight body flex with one end jacked up?

[rationull]

When changing my oil today, I had just the front end jacked up (usually I have both ends up because I tend to rotate tires when doing an oil change, but not this time). When I opened my passenger door to get my notebook from the glove box to log the mileage, I noticed that the door felt strange when opening and closing. Looking closely, it looks like the latch wasn't aligned quite perfectly, so it was rubbing a little on open and close.

This happens on both doors (which admittedly are big, heavy coupe doors) but wasn't happening anymore after I let the car down.

My guess is that the body is flexing a little in response to being jacked up on one end only. Seems a little chintzy. Is this normal on modern cars?

 

[JHZR2]

what car?

 

[crazyoildude]

make year and model??

 

[tom slick]

completely normal, some cars will flex so much you can't open the door or if you get it open you can't close it.

 

[oilboy123]

My 98 Taurus I notice gets hard to open.......This is the 98 which is supposed to be much more stiff than the older models.


Normal.....................

 

[rationull]

2007 Civic. I didn't figure it was a problem but like oilboy alludes to seems like every new generation of car is advertising increased structural rigidity. Just seemed a little weird. Especially on a fairly short wheelbase car -- although the doors are pretty long.

Originally Posted By: tom slick
completely normal, some cars will flex so much you can't open the door or if you get it open you can't close it.


Wow, that would really suck!

 

[Mr Nice]

Its normal, but why not just use ramps ?

When I put my 2007 Civic on ramps the doors have no problem opening and closing.

 

[rationull]

Eh. I just don't have any good ramps. This car is so easy to jack up I just don't worry about it. Plus, whenever I put a stick shift car up on ramps I always get nervous about overshooting, and as a result feel bad for the poor clutch after driving up the ramp

 

[mstrjon32]

Originally Posted By: rationull
Plus, whenever I put a stick shift car up on ramps I always get nervous about overshooting, and as a result feel bad for the poor clutch after driving up the ramp


Clutch sympathy is overrated.

 

[HTSS_TR]

The body flexes the most when you jack up only 1 corner.

 

[brianl703]

My 1988 Mustang was like that till I got subframe connectors installed.

 

[Mr Nice]

The Fox body Mustangs are like a wet spaghetti noodle

 

[Colt45ws]

My old cavi would do that. Whenever I had one corner jacked up you could see the height difference between the front and rear doors. Very hard to open the doors.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
The Fox body Mustangs are like a wet spaghetti noodle


Try a 'vert or T-Top!

My '87 GT was SCARY!!!!!

 

[eljefino]

If you look on the tops of the kicker panels there is usually plastic or rubber that rubs on the bottoms of the doors. A latched door adds to rigidity, but you can hear it creak when you hit wierd, large bumps like offset speed bumps. The plastic deadens the noise.

Unibody cars also use the front and rear glass for stiffness!

My Saturn S-series spoil me by not twisting. The "space frame" lives up to the hype!

 

[mechtech2]

This is pretty normal. Modern frameless cars are much worse about this flexing.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
The Fox body Mustangs are like a wet spaghetti noodle


Yea, the Contour I had was a [censored] of a lot stiffer.

 

[AcuraTech]

Late model cars usually flex less, also seems that cars with higher mileage flex more than newer cars.

 

[brianl703]

I'm amazed at what an improvement subframe connectors made on that Mustang. Best $100 I ever spent on it.