I have a 1997 vintage Whirlpool Oven w/ Range top. The oven door wasn't closing all the way, so after reading in the forum, I ordered replacement hinges and put them in about a month ago. After the replacement, the oven door closed quickly, fully and firmly. Everything seemed to be fine. We've used the oven about 10 times since with no problem.

However, starting yesterday the oven door doesn't close all the way again. The hinges appear to be loose again - the door closes weakly, leaving about 1/2 inch gap and the light stays on. So either the hinges went bad in 1 month, which seems unlikely, or there is some other cause of the problem with the door closing. Does anyone know anything else that may be causing the door to not close fully?

A little more background - I also replaced the gasket prior to replacing the hinges, to see if that might give it a tighter seal. But that didn't get the door to close any better, and I moved on to the hinges as the likely suspect. The gasket is slightly larger than the old one, but assumed that was due to it being new.

Please help!

Couldn't see the pins inside, but I'm wondering how does this explain everything working fine for a month after the repair. Are there any other possibilities? Just checking because if it's what you say, and the part isn't available, then I'm shopping for a new appliance.

One thing I realized we have done 2-3 times in the last month is to leave the door propped open partially (6-12") after turning off the oven to use the heat from the oven to warm the kitchen (cold winter!). This is probably not likely, but could the heat coming out the sides of the oven door for an extended period of time somehow affect the hinge springs, or could the stress of having the door partially open for an extended period of time stretch the springs in the hinges?

Thanks for your help!

I guess it's worth a shot. Thanks for your help!

Mike.

I did a little more tinkering on this over the weekend, and think I have it fixed, at least for now. A couple of factors may have been involved here. 1.) The new hinges that I put in had a slightly longer hook on them (the part you stick in the slot), causing the door to be a bit loose at the bottom. 2.) The new door gasket is slightly thicker than the old one, causing the door to pinch a bit at the bottom.

Anyway, what I ended up doing was inserting a thick washer under the little piece of the hinge hook that rests on the outside of the frame (looks like the heel of a boot, not the part that sticks into the slot). This put a slightly wider gap at the bottom of the door, but with the thicker gasket, not enough to leak heat out the bottom. By angling the bottom of the door out, this caused the door to come forward at the top and be able to close fully.

This may not work long term, especially as the springs in the hinge loosen up. But you never know. It's working now...

Thanks for your help!