I have a 2005 with about 19k miles on it. The other day I left the office to go to lunch with a friend of mine. When he opened the passenger door it made a loud pop noise. We inspected it and found that the door was binding with the fender when he opened it. The gap didn't look right and the door stuck out about 2 millimeters further than the fender. I was concerned so I took it to the dealer. When I got there I got out of the car and walked around to show the tech my problem and I when I got there I could tell just by looking at it that the problem was fixed. The gap was perfect and the door lined up perfectly with the fender. After some discussion we decided that maybe the parking spot I was in was at a weird angle and torqued the car just right so it didnt' line up any more. I stopped parking in that spot and haven't had another problem until today. It happened again. So I pulled into a completely other area of the parking lot and it was still binding. Then I pulled it out into the street and it was still binding. After playing around with it we got the door to open and went to lunch. When we got there the door opened fine. After lunch it was binding again. When it works all the gaps are perfect and the alignment is perfect. When it doesn't you can usually tell by looking at it that something is wrong. I'm confused. Any ideas?

 

Sounds to me like there is some paly in the door. Are all the bolts on the hinges tight? With the door open, can you wiggle the door up or down, or in or out. If the bolts are not tight, that would probably be your problem. Might have even lost a shim if they use them on the doors.

I'm sure a body man will have some more suggestions.

 

Check the hinge pins.

Bill

 

 

Thanks for the replies. I've inspected the door and the hinges. Everything appears to be tight. I get no play whatsoever and even when I'm having the problem with it binding the latch lines up perfectly when I shut the door. My concern is that since it works well most of the time my passenger doesn't expect it when they open the door and the binding is going to damage the paint. I guess I'll probably have to take it in to a body guy and have him inspect it more closely

 

Were you parking where the hot sun was beating on the side of the car? Perhaps it is expanding and messing with the alignment.
Just sayin...

 

I know that sound's strange but that's exactly what I was thinking. You'd still think this shouldn't happen though. Maybe the front fender is the part that's changing shape a little. I see that you have a dark colored car too. That could enhance this situation.

 

I had something similar happen like that and I lubricated the door hinges and the problem disappeared.

 

Has this car had a Vertical Door Kit at any time in the past and has now been removed? If so, it is very possible that modifications made while installing the kit have caused a loss of proper panel alignment. The heat can absolutely cause panels to expand slightly.

 

If not hinges, my thought was heat expansion.

Check all your front end panel gaps and re-adjust the binding side if needed.

Seems to be your writing the door appears not to move, and the fender does.... so also look for missing bolts/ screws/ shims/ bent brackets for mounting the fender.

 

The chassis on the C6 is too stiff for it to torque enough to make this happen.

 

Heat expansion could be a possibility. It was over 90 yesterday and my car is black. It seemed to happen after it sat in a hot parking lot for a while. I checked it in my garage this morning and it was perfect. Although, when it happened a few weeks ago the temperature was probably in the high 70s or low 80s.

I haven't checked out the fender too much. It doesn't appear to be loose but I'll take a better look at it after work today. The door itself is solid with no play at all. It has stock hinges.

 

I was in Gilbert a couple of weeks ago when it was 85 and I had no problem with my car when we parked it in any parking lots outside. So I don't think the temp had anything to do with your problem. Just my .02

 

I had this problem the other day on my 2008. It was the window not indexing properly. When open, the window did not retract as it normally does. When trying to close the door, the window binds at the front edge making it appear as if the hinges are misaligned. I reset the window indexing and have not had a problem since.