Reviews for Quadratec Delrin Replacement Door Hinge Bushings for 07-24 Jeep Wrangler JK & JL 4 Door
I bought this kit to help with the "stickiness" of the factory hinges on my 2011 4 door Wrangler. I appreciated the color direction page, with photos. The tips and hints for protecting the paint and doors were very helpful. The bushings seem to be well made. I would have liked it if more of the emery cloth was provided. I used my 2 pieces up on the first 2 doors. I also found issue with the idea of pounding out the old bushings. I started on the rear drivers side door, and had to pound on the top hinge so hard that I moved it out of alignment and the bushing did not move. I ended up removing the hinge and drilling out the bushing in a bench vice. My Jeep has factory mounted running board/steps. There was no way I was going to be able to pound out the bottom bushing. I used a cordless drill and drilled out that bushing with the hinge in place. I moved onto the front door and continued using the drill, rather than beating on hinges with a hammer. I have the two driver side doors done, and I am happy with the results so far. The doors open and close much nicer. My recommendations are, replace your hinge bushings with this kit, but do it before your factory bushing get as bad as mine. If you wait, it will not be as easy to do as the enclosed directions would suggest.
I have to echo Mark H. and David R reviews below. DO NOT wait to replace bushings on new Wrangler, do it immediately! If northern climate (I'm in MI) or corrosive climate and you wait (5 years) like me, you are in for a real struggle. FORGET the extraction tool, 1 of 5 hinges I attempted would not budge, again chipping a lot of paint on hinge, go directly to 1/2" drill bit, smooth and easy for all the rest with minimal to no damage.
Also, if you wait like I did, you will need a dolly jack to lift doors out of hinges, careful, they are a bit heavy and awkward. All and all I regret changing these out, not because of Quadratec quality, but the JEEP designers in using the OEM part in the first place.
The inserts themselves are awesome. The reason I gave a 2 star review is the instructions really are a terrible way to do the task. They instruct you to use the removing pin upward instead of down. This is because there is a flare at the top of the existing pin. The issue is this makes swinging the hammer incredibly awkward and even though my door was covered as instructed I found the pin as it was seating chipped quite a bit of paint off my hinge. The paint also wraps around the bottom of the hinge much more than on top which is hidden by the hinge itself so it makes no sense to hit from the bottom. After one door I did it my own way and things were a million times easier and my car didn’t get damaged on a single other hinge. I used a flat head to lightly tap and bend the flare into the hinge. My existing hinge was SUPER corroded so I had to use the Philips head to kinda scrape some of the metal from inside. The outer material on the hinge is much harder and did not have any damage but the inner metal peeled away like butter. After a while I hit the pin DOWN and the existing inner hinge came out super easily. Great pins terrible instructions that will more than likely cause unnecessary damage.
The inserts break very easily when taping them in. I was only able to do my rear doors with this kit. They should send you spares!
Bushing flanges are too thick. This makes the doors fit too high, breaking the water seal at the bottom of the door and making the doors all hit the latch pin. You can close them, but they are all about 1/8" too high.
Happy with the inserts, not so happy that you have to file down the inside of the brackets to get them to fit which then caused rust. Tried to be as careful as possible but still got rust on some tops of the hinges and bottoms that I didn't have prior.
No issues with the removal and install. After completing these did work well... for a few years.... They did not last long and I have one door that is opening very hard and I'll likely have to replace them again. So much for the YouTube video that says:
"Afterwards your doors will open and shut smoothly and removing your doors will be NEVER be a problem again" .
Ordered for a 2015 JKU. I wanted to change out the OEM bushings before they became too corroded. Factory bushings came out with no problems. The included removal tool works well for this. There was absolutely no corrosion on the bushing or in the door hinge guides where the door pin slides in. The Delrin bushings were too tight on some hinge guides, and too loose on others. Had to switch then around and play with them to make them fit the best they could.
Then, when checking the fit on the door pins, I had the same too loose and too tight problems. I used the included sanding paper to try to help, and still too tight on two of the door pins. I ended up having to take a chainsaw file to the inside of Delrin bushings to make it all work. After it was all installed, I tested door removal. The Delrin bushings were coming out with the door pins which makes me fear losing them. I hope this improves as dirt and other particles help them "stick" to the holes in the door hinges.
The thickness of these versus the factory bushings could definitely throw your door alignment off, too. So, be aware of that.
For the cost, the fit was disappointing. No doubt they are better material than the factory offering in the long run, but the execution is off. One of the few mods I've done to the Jeep that I'm thinking I'd probably not do again unless the machining on these is improved. I kept the factory bushings to reinstall if these don't function better in the future.
Way too thick for my 2008. I ended up spending 3 hours sanding 2 down since I had the door off. Not sure what I'm going to do for the other 3 doors. Worked ok after tons of work. They may fit better with newer models.
these door bushings never worked right they squicked ever time you moved the doors