The metal is thin but not that thin. Something put a great deal of force on that to make that nice tidy ridge. It would have had to push against something in the other direction with equal force. If we could find out if there was a brace there that the water could get between then that would certainly be a possibility. It would have to hold a lot of water though.

Goram it. Does anyone have the link to the Toyota manuals? It's in someones sig line.

It is in Ultra's. I have checked and there is nothing. Worth somebody else taking a second look.

Found em.

OK so I just went and used the age old stud finding method and tapped on my door until the noise changed. They is indeed something very solid and straight right there (go try it). I am going to go with Spud's first thought that the door panel or that support is somehow vibrating and pushing it out. If it was a one off and stay the way it originally started then I would guess it had been pushed in but since it keeps getting worse that means it is dynamic and not static.

Could also be the ice thesis but I can't tell if it would hold enough water there to create enough force to push it out like that. I still think ice would have created a much larger bulge.

There's a crash beam that runs front to rear inside the door at about that height (marked in red) and is only 1/8" or so away from the skin. (These are pics I took when I did sound deadening so the brown material you see is butyl tape wedged into that gap)

Maybe it's coming into contact with the skin somehow?

Hey all. Just got back from dinner. The car is parked in heated underground parking overnight before returning to the up to -30 degrees C weather during the day. It has been parked on the street the last few months in a place I would not normally be. It is entirely possible a snow plow drove by and nailed it. As to the weight of the doors, they are the same near as I can tell.

The bulge is firm with no give. Some thing would seem to be behind it.

I should note, when I first discovered the issue, I took it outside from +24 degrees to about 0 degrees C and it tightened the panel straight again. Then a few days later, the bulge was noticeable even in the cold.

I think someone or something pressed the door skin into the crash beam enough to crease it but the skin didn't dent and popped back out leaving the crease. If it's getting worse, the culprit keeps doing it. That's my conspiracy theory and I'm sticking to it.

lol, there are jerks in the world for sure.

Agreed, it's just the imprint of the crash beam from behind after something pressed on the door panel. Plain and simple panel damage. Before anyone asks, Not PDRable.

Subsonic

I'd hope Toyota would be interested in that.

The crash bar is completely firm, so even if water froze in there, it would rather push the skin outwards, and not the bar against the skin.


Given the regular temperature changes mentioned by the OP, and assuming that the material of the skin and the bar are different, i.e. have different expansion coeficcients (as well as the crash bar being part of a rigid structure), I can imagine that the door skin pulls itself against the crash bar during cold weather - this would also explain why the crease is getting worse.


As to why it is only present on one side: Subaru's factory tolerances are quite large, and actual values even differ from side to side on some parts.




Just a theory, but makes sense to me.




You can easily remove the door card and check what is going on inside the doors. I suggest to check both sides and look/measure for differences.


Just watch out for the wires and the mechanisms for the door handle and door lock when Lifting the door card up.

It could be him?? Using the door as a prop...


http://www.gifbin.com/bin/022010/126...icken-rape.gif

Perfect. That was the missing link in our speculations. It is also exactly where my tap test put it.