waterdam in door

[Se7enLC]

Interesting question

awhile back, somebody kicked in my door panel. I left my jeep at an autobody shop this past week to have the door panel replace and repainted and such. I went to pick it up today and found the waterdam sitting in the trunk area. I asked about it, and the body shop guys tried to convince me that it was soundproofing and that I should bring the jeep back next week and they'll put it back on or make sure that the replacement door panel came with one.

The fsm pretty clearly calls it a waterdam and even says "make sure not to damage or contaminate it when removing or installing it or it will need to be replaced. It seems to have holes in it that were cut with a box knife (probably to remove it)

So what should I do? I'm thinking I should print out that page from the FSM and bring it to the body shop - but should I go to a dealership to have the waterdam installed, since the body shop doesn't even know what it is??

 

[billforde]

The waterdam does have several holes in it for wires and the door handle to pass through. I have removed my door panel several times, mostly to add sound proffing and change the speakers. You can always reinstall the waterdam yourself if you feel aventureous. You definitely want them to put it back because it atleast protects the speaker for getting wet.

 

[Se7enLC]

adventure is not particularly important for this job - it's covered by insurance, so I'll just go back and have them finish it..

After getting it home I noticed something else - when I push on the part of the door that had the dent with my hand, the metal moved (dent in dent out, kinda like pushing the cap on a snapple bottle whose seal has been broken), but on the opposite (undented) door, it felt solid (seal intact). After having the "door replaced", the one that was dented still seems to be pushable like that. Think that's related to the waterdam? I guess if there are supposed to be holes for the wires, that means it's not air/water tight, so shouldn't really affect it.

Is there anything I should look for to determine if the door was in fact replaced at all? It seems to look fine, but I'm a little suspicious that they took the waterdam off, pushed the metal back out and called it a day - but still charged my insurance company over $1000 for the work