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The door hinges on my 2002 compass caravan are stiff. Not difficult to open or close with the door but this causes flexing in the hinge mounting on the door frame. One day something might break or the seal will leak

The hinge appears to turn inside a plastic sleeve. I have been unable to get any lubricant into it.

Any ideas on how to free this up a bit?

Quote: Originally posted by Vectratot on 18/11/2009

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I had the same problem with my side gas locker door hinges, tried WD40 still the same so I took the hinges off and seperated each hinge and polished each pin with 1000 grit wet or dry and then 1500 wet or dry problem solved, that was two years ago. The pins are stainless steel so no damage can be done, but I think that WD40 attacks the plastic bushes in the other part of the hinge.

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 Lobey is quite right, graphite is the best lubricant, the problem is getting it into the pin/bush joint. I had this problem with my door and I did in fact remove and replace the rivetted-on hinges one at a time. Once off they came apart fairly easily, if I remember correctly, by tapping out the pins. Certainly the bushes, which I think are nylon, were undamaged. Once apart the pins were cleaned up with wire wool and then I carefully  ran a twist drill slightly thicker than the pin through the binding bushes. (I first made a hole in a plastic offcut with the drill to make sure it was only slightly bigger than the pin). Reassembled the hinge with a little graphite (grated up pencil lead) and refitted it, been ok for nearly 3 years.

    Hope this is of help.

     Pete.

Silicon spray sorts them out. Got mine from Lidle. Its good for all types of plastic to plastic, specialy curtain runners Etc. After a few short sprays on hinges mine where fine on the door, do it over a few days, not too much at once.

take plastic caps off if fiited boil kettle pour water over hinges which should free up hinges then lubricate straigh away if that doesn't work then hinges need to be removed and cleaned up hope this helps rich

Quote: Originally posted by rlcara on 03/12/2009

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take plastic caps off if fiited boil kettle pour water over hinges which should free up hinges then lubricate straigh away if that doesn't work then hinges need to be removed and cleaned up hope this helps rich

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Cheers mate - this worked a treat.

Many thanks to others for recommended lubricants but the point was I could not get it into the hinge. Hot water opened it sufficiently. I had tried a hair drier but obviously not hot enough.

Regards

Steve