Rear hatch door alignment and paint rubbing issue

[barrysharp]

Some time back I posted an issue that many other XC70 owners were also having. It was related to the rear hatch door/gate contacting the bumper in the lower right corner. Several members indicated they had dealership re-align the door/gate with some success. Others weren't so lucky, including myself.

Today I finally fixed this problem for myself. The following slideshow tells a thousand words.

Hope this is of some help to others.

http://homepage.mac.com/barrysharp/PhotoAlbum91.html
http://homepage.mac.com/barrysharp/PhotoAlbum99.html

Edit: Several people have asked for the photos again - so I re-posted them and the new URL has been edited above. :)

[birddog]

Great idea Barry! Are you concerned at all about doing any damage to the lense cover? I know they aren't cheap.
Think I'll try it too. ;)

[AWD*V70XC]

Barry, it looks like the door is rubbing on the right hand side (as you look at the door) but it looks like you have inserted the rubber on the left light cluster. Is this right?

BTW my door is rubbing (again on the right hand side) but it is rubbing further down, almost on the corner of the door.

[barrysharp]

birddog:

I actually used my key to pry the gap between bumper and the lense as the rubber strip was thicker than the gap. I was then able to squeeze the rubber strip into position and then removed the key shank. The rubber strip is held very securely. This fix puts little pressure on the lense so long as the rubber strip is about 2" long to spread whatever load there is. I'm quite happy with the results so far.

AWD*V70XC:

The door edge is the lower right corner when looking at rear of car - i.e., passenger side. It certainly is the right and not left side. Don't the pics make this clear ?

I've also noticed this fix has solved another problem I've had over past six months or so. When driving and negotiating road disturbances I've been hearing this sort of creaking and groaning from the rear. This noise is now gone. :) I believe this noise was as a result of the car's frame/structure being flexed when hitting small road disturbances that caused the rear hatch door to twist or deform some and rub on the bumper in the lower right as shown in the pictures. I feel very pleased with myself at this point and can't believe the fix was so simple. :D I discovered the fix by simply pushing on the bumper where the rub mark was and observed the gap between the bottom edge of the light cluster lense and the bumper. The push resulted in the bumper rotating about some point lower down from the rubbed spot and the gap widening toward the outboard side. This then gave me the idea of slipping in the piece of black rubber so the the bumper could hold the shape as if I was pushing - and it did the trick perfectly. I used a piece of rubber I cut from an old unused rubber hose removed from a washing machine water outlet. I always new it would one day serve another purpose. ;)

[Willy]

Hello Barry,
I know it is off-topic, but when I visited your website, I noticed the Cray's.
However, I didn't see any comments. Just curious.
About the hatch: are you sure it's the door? When I received my car, the bumper was not well aligned, they had to take it off to mount a hitch and did not engage the alignment pieces at the wheel wells as it should be.
Willy

[barrysharp]

Hello Barry,
I know it is off-topic, but when I visited your website, I noticed the Cray's.
However, I didn't see any comments. Just curious.
About the hatch: are you sure it's the door? When I received my car, the bumper was not well aligned, they had to take it off to mount a hitch and did not engage the alignment pieces at the wheel wells as it should be.
Willy

Cray's are at work - can't say too much - hope you understand - just gaze at them for your pleasure. They're awesome machines to work with.

You are correct - the paint rubbing problem on the rear hatch gate's edge is caused by incorrect bumper alignment. The dense rubber strip placed where I show in the pictures aligns the bumper so it does not contact the hatch gate. A very simply fix that works wonderfully well. :)

[Willy]

There seems to be something strange with the bumpers. Mine doesn't rub, but the gap between it and the hatch is indeed smaller at the right side, albeit by a very small amount. Perhaps it happens over time, but then what could be the cause of this "unbalanced" behavior?
The Cray's are indeed impressive to watch, Stonehenge isn't that far fetched, I mean by shear size of course (although you can sometimes read in a pc magazine that what used to go in a number of these large cabinets now sits in our laptop computers; well, perhaps not quite :))
Willy

[barrysharp]

Photos re-posted as requested by several members. :)

http://homepage.mac.com/barrysharp/PhotoAlbum91.html
http://homepage.mac.com/barrysharp/PhotoAlbum99.html

I also edit the original post.

Edit:

P.S. Hmmm - it seems my original photos are still intact - sorry about all this.

[hd70]

In the near future (after I done with moving) I will have a third appointment at the dealer to have this fixed. The gap is always smaller (or rubbing) when it is cold or freezing outside. If it is warm, the gab seems to be normal, but still smaller than left side. I was told that this time they get a new subframe for underneath the bumper which should be able to support the upper part of it.

I will let you know if my dealer is able to fix it.

[skibo]

I have the same problem with my '04. I mentioned it to the dealer when I scheduled my 7500 mile service, but when I got to my dealer (2 hours away) they were not prepared to fix it that day, and wanted me to make another appointment. Same story with the 'slush whine' retrofit kit - come back again, even though I'd mentioned it when I made the appointment - dissapointing.

In both cases, the tech said they'd never addressed either issue - I was surprised since both the rubbing issue and slush whine have gotten so much discussion on this forum, I assumed they were widespread issues.

[Chikkart]

Hmm... wish I had read this thread before I delivered my car for it's 40 000km service yesterday. I realized this problem last time I washed my car. I saw the rubbing of the paint on one side of the rear hatch, and hence also checked the other side. Now, as you can see from the pictures posted here (http://homepage.mac.com/chikkart/PhotoAlbum1.html) I do have rubbing/scrubbing on both sides of the hatch. When I look at the bumper/hatch while the car is standing still, I can see no reason why this is happening. The bumber looks to be alligned almost perfectly, with rather good clearance on both sides. The only possible scenario I can see is that this either is caused by the fact that the rear bumper plastic is so weak and so badly mounted that it is vibrating so heavily during driving that it causes it to rubb against the hatch.
After seeing this, I inspected the rest of the car for similar faults. I soon also discovered that this was happening between the front and rear doors on the passenger side. When the car is parked, the doors are well alligned, and I can not get them to touch even if I push in at the front door. How could this have happened? Could it be caused by torsion movement in the car while driving? Has anybody else experienced the same?

I pointed out these facts to the dealer when I was there, and also pointed out that I was very afraid that this could lead to rust marks if not dealt with in a correct manner. He inspected the rear hatch, and told me that there was nothing they could do about it since it was rubbing on both sides?? (re-alligning it was only an option if it only was one side that where affected). He then went on to tell me that I needed not to be afraid of rust on the rear hatch, since it was in fact made out of plastic/fiberglass (now, that was not exactly the answer I wanted).

With regards to the rubbing between the rear/front door, he could not give me any explanation as to why this was happening. No reason, no fix, no nothing. His only advice was to put on some touch-up paint, and possible put on some clear plastic film to protect it against further wear.

Now, to me this clearly looks to be caused by a fabrication failure, and hence should be dealth with by Volvo under extended warranty. The people at my local Volvo dealer clearly felt otherwise.

[hd70]

I'm stilling waiting for it to be fixed. Delay is because I moved and haven't had time yet. I want it to be repaired next month. My dealer is aware of the problem. He tried it two times with no success. He told me that Volvo has a different subframe for underneath the bumper which should solve the problem.
The rubbing mainly occurs when it is cold outside. I'll keep you posted.

[green37d]

Does the rubber strip go the width/length of the light?

I might have to try this...

Thanks