Bonnet release broken?

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

07-07-2008, 02:36 PM

aaroncosbey

Registered User

Thread Starter

Join Date: May 2007

Location: Northern Ireland

Posts: 425

Likes: 0

Received 1 Like on 1 Post

Bonnet release broken?

Hopefully this post will enable you to open the bonnet manually if the cable were to snap for example.

-----------------------------------------------------------

This all started when i decided to take my airbox lid off to see what it sounded like....

I pulled the bonnet release and nothing!

The lever at the drivers side footwell did not retract and the bonnet did not pop.

There may be other ways to open your bonnet without going down this route - by all means try them first.

I conculded that there was enough resistance in the drivers footwell lever (cable stll attached to lever) to assume that the problem was at the latch at the front of the car.

-----------------------------------------------------------

to start:

1. CHOCK the rear wheels of the car (dont be a noob and forget) - this may save your life!

(Put the car on axel stands.... dont risk leaving it on a jack)!

I found it easy to slide a trolley jack under the middle of the car like so:

You have to remove the MIDDLE plastic tray under the bumper.

To do this you have to remove nearly all the screws underneath the front bumper (even the two side pieces of plastic trim - see pic ^)

When the screws and plastic pop rivits have been removed from the side trays, its possible to push them out of the way and look up to reveal 1 more plastic rivit thing on each side.

You should now be able to remove the centre piece of plastic to enable easy access to the radiator / AC system and the bonnet latch.

It should look something like this:

The Little black box is a protective cover to protect the locking mechanisim/springs etc and needs wedged open slightly to gain better access to the innards of the latch. (be careful here...dont break it)!

The next step requires a bit of playing around and fiddling with a screwdriver...

Basically you are going to try and mimic the cable pulling a lever to release the bonnet by puching the lever from the opposite side with a screwdriver:

It shouldnt be to hard to do (dont be too forceful)... after all a small cable usuall does the job.

The bonnet should "POP"

---------------------------------------------------------

When trying to pop the lever with a screw driver you are pushing the bottom silver lever from the righthand side (mimicing the cable's direction)

I spent a wee while cleaning the latch for you all to look at:

A mod that i think might be worth while at this stage is securing the bottom of the large spring to the body of the latch simply by using a cable tie.
Its inexpensive, easy and stops the sping from freeing its self and becoming lost.
Also taping (with electrical tape) the rusty cable stop to the blue end so that it fits snugly in the latch.

------------------------------------------------

Just remember to TEST & make sure the thing works before starting to reassemble the front of the car!