Heyup guys, have a little (Well, will turn into a big one when i come to fill my washer fluid up) problem. I was finishing fitting my central locking at the weekend, opened the bonnet to disconnect the battery. Opened up fine but now it won't.

I closed the bonnet and got back into the car and noticed the lever was stuck out a bit (as though you had pulled the lever about half way). If i pull it, it doesn't release the bonnet at all. First thing i thought was the cable had snapped, but then i noticed the lever still has a bit of resistance on it so i am totally lost for ideas. I will be due to fill up my washer fluid in a few days (i'm really anal by keeping my front and rear screens clean).

If anyone could shed any light on this, it would be greatly appreciated

Sort of had the same problem on my Octavia (bonnet wouldnt open using the front lever) so I oiled the bonnet catch and now works fine

Have you tried getting someone to push or pull the bonnet when pulling the lever?

Usually never fails, then oil it

First of all, you should not drive the car until the problem is solved. These things have a habit of coming open even though it should be 'impossible' because of the secondary hook (the one moved by the lever under the grill). If it does come undone it will be new bonnet, new windscreen, new roof, etc.

The cable release doesn't work how you would expect. The inner wire is fixed at the latch end and the cable outer pulls a lever. I think the cable outer has come off the fork in the lever. Sometimes if you push the release handle it will re-engage. Also try moving the secondary hook release through the grill.

Some body had a similar problem a little while ago on here, suggestion then was to remove the lever mechanism from the car body down in the driver's footwell. With the cable free you can then pull further than when it's in fixed position. Assuming something is bust at the bonnet catch end, this approach seems sensible, never tried it myself though!