Open the door too wide suddenly, damage the door check?

If it opens and shuts OK, should be fine. I've had it happen with cars in the past, never had damage.

 

Yes it can. I had a passenger throw open their door in a previous car once, in high winds! The door got thrown back, and it put a nice vertical crease in the door body work close to the hinges. Make sure you keep hold of the door when you open it!

 

I've had the wind catch doors and damage the car next to me. I've never seen damage to a car from throwing the door open, but I'm sure it can happen.

 

If the door check does its job then there should be no damage to the check or the door.

 

When I was young, a wind gust grabbed a door from me, breaking the stop and damaging a hinge so that I could not close it properly. Then dad, a bit annoyed that I couldn't get it closed and not yet seeing the mechanical problems I spotted, demonstrated to me how to apply enough force to get it closed.

Oops!, it no longer aligned with its opening, so it wasn't closing, period. That forceful demonstration just added some more sheet metal dents.

A shop repaired the stop and hinges the next day. The car was too old to bother with sheet metal cosmetics.

 

Compared to my 08' gen 2 to my new Prius 2 gen 4, I did notice right off that the doors, at least the driver door, does tend to swing out quite far. And if some people who seem to like to slam them open or closed, its like anything else, if your try hard enough you'll break something... Bottom line is to keep a good grip on the door while opening, especially when its windy, being as the door does open pretty far the wind can get hold of it really quickly.

 

There is a tendency nowadays to just have a finger grip indentation in the door's armrest for hanging onto, whereas there used to be a proper handle which weaker hands could clutch easier. We get frequent gale force winds in Cornwall which can tear the door from your grasp of you're not careful.

 

Interesting thread. The doors on our new-to-us Prius Gen IV have very little resistance when opening or closing. This "loose" feel is at its worst when the door approaches fully open, when it's too far to grab!

I'm wondering if there's some way to tighten the mechanism?
...hmm...

 

The Repair Manual (more info) includes a step to “Apply MP grease to the sliding parts of the front [or rear] door check assembly” when installing it, but there are no instructions for adjusting the door checks. There are door adjustment procedures in the manual, but they are concerned only with alignment of the closed doors and the body, not the force needed for opening or closing.

Plastic Auto, a firm in Russia, offers a door check repair kit, which they also sell on eBay for $27, but note the extended delivery time. If you buy one and use it, please let us know how it works.