Hi Guys

How much effort should it take to release the bonnet catch?

I seem to have to pull the leaver in the passenger foot well quite hard and I am worried something is going to snap!

cheers

Martin

mines opens fine, not too tight that its hard to pull, but not to loose that someone could open it with there foot

Edited 1 March, 201313 yr by racing boy

Same here, not dead stiff but not really easy either. Certainly no hard straining required!

Hmm.... think I will need to get that looked at then!

If it's new then it probably needs looking at, but if it a few years old it's quite a common problem on other VAG cars (as I found out), the mechanism seizes up and eventually the cable can snap if you pull too hard. I had to take the grill off my last car to open the bonnet. Now I spray the catch on my 2005 Touran with WD40 whenever I remember. Multi purpose grease would last a bit longer.

Edited 1 March, 201313 yr by artichoke273

I seem to find bonnet release quite stiff in cars that have the lever against

the side panels.

But find it easy if under the dash / steering column.

Mine 2010 Superb is equally stiff ...

i liked the old fords as the bonnet release was right under the steering column, i loved this in many sierras that i owned

Should be about the same effort, or slightly more, than opening a door handle.

Ray

Edited 2 March, 201313 yr by Argee

My bonnet release gradually got increasing difficult to use until one day it went 'ping', but it wasn't due to me manhandling it, it just gradually got harder and harder to open, and I think it snapping was always going to be inevitable. It was a real trial getting it fixed, had to go into the dealer for the front to be taken off so they could fit a new one.

The one thing they didn't do at the end of fixing all this was reconnect the bonnet sensor, so when my oil light came on and I topped up, the car thought I hadn't opened the bonnet, so regardless of how much oil was in the car it kept telling me to check the oil.

In the end I got so fed up with the oil light I rang Skoda UK who sent out one of their VW/Audi/Skoda technicians who spotted it in around 5 seconds, but one simple thing like a snapped cable lead to a few months of trouble!

OK - looks like a trip to the dealer to get it checked out before something snaps!