"Yes, the car has been hit from behind while stopped in August of 2006. I first complained about the darting and window and door problems in October of 2004."

OK then there's your answer!!! Spend some money and get a unibody expert to straighten the chassis!

And poof........problems solved!

Next time don't purchase a car thats been hit before, unless its checked by an expert.

 

Good find 180, I didn't know that!

 

I think what John is saying is that yes the car was hit in 06, but he had been having the problems well before that in 04. I too have read of his problems over the years and I am pretty sure he bought it new and thus the car had not been hit when he bought it.

 

I'm sorry John, I read more into your response than was actually there. My Bad.
The only reason I mentioned the TC, is because we both haved 04's, and it seems to me that the TC is a little more "sensitive" on the 04's than it is on the later year cars.
Once I was accelerating faster than normal, and crossed some relativily smooth railroad tracks just as I was shifting into 2nd. gear. Well wouldn't you know it, my car went into limp mode. The only reason I could think of to cause this to happen, is that for the slightest moment the tire must have been airborne and when I let the clutch out, it "spun". That's why I suggested disconnecting your TC. It just doesn't seem to take much for the TC to interfere with normal operations, even when the car isn't being driven aggressively. Then again, it very well may have nothing to do with your problem.

 

OK...back to the topic.

As I said before....I think the chances of the frame welds breaking without serious trauma is pretty unlikely. Typical American and Japanese cars use the 4*sqrtGMT. That is the weld button diameter must exceed 4 times the square root of the governing metal thickness. Most German applications use 5sqrtGMT formula. Given the gauge of the frame material and the formula to figure weld size, there are some pretty beefy welds under there.

That being said.... since this was a problem since the car was new, there's 2 areas I would start looking. First, since it's a Roadster, I'd check the underbody brace for location and tightness. Second, I'd take some rudimentary measurements to make sure something didn't happen during shipping. There could have been issues where the car was tied down by the frame or shipping loop in the back of the car.

You never mentioned if this was an early build date or not. If it was one of the first few hundred off the line, there's always the possibility that there were welding issues with the stepper schedule, cap geometry, weld-through sealers, etc. but I'm going to assume not for the moment.

 

[quote=apkano]OK...back to the topic.
.
First, since it's a Roadster....... You never mentioned if this was an early build date or not.

Its a coupe, build #12672

 

A few clarifications;

It's a coupe bought new in March 04.

My avatar pic shows it in Oct. 04. In the full size picture you can see light lines across the door and rear body that are aligned with each other. The darting and door problems started after that picture was taken. I first complained about those problems in Nov. 04.

The car was hit from behind in Aug. 06 and was repaired.

The selling dealer claims to have checked the alignment each of the six times the car was brought to them for the darting problem.

The service bulletin on the windows was performed by the selling dealer and the windows no longer hang up on the drip rail. There is still road noise from the bottoms of the doors and wind noise from the windows.

A comment left by the selling dealer the last time they worked on it:
DSCN3327.jpg

 

Be thankful the smear was not brown in color.