Hi there - I have a 1999 Felicia hatchback and the bonnet has jammed shut.

No amount of pulling on the catch or banging on the bonnet has freed it.

My local dealership says it is an awkward thing to fix and that I need to take it in to them.

Anyone can help ? :(

Cant help i'm afraid but a friend on mine had the bonnet release go on her Audi and it was a SOD to get fixed - took a garage almost 2 hours! Think you either need to break the grill or get at the car from underneath.

Dave

Usually a couple of possibilities, Sprout.

1. Catch is jammed. Try pushing down on the bonnet while someone else pulls the lever.

2. Bowden cable is broken - lever all floppy - no amount of pulling will fix this

3. Bowden cable has come free from the clamp at the bonnet end. Number 1. may work here but you'll be very lucky.

2 or 3 are likely to be tricky. They require some way of accessing the catch from underneath and usually that's tough to do (deliberately). Sometimes you can unscrew the catch bolt (the mushroom headed thing) if you can get a screwdriver to it from underneath. Again you may need someone to push down on the bonnet to reduce the friction while you do this. It may be too awkward to get at or just too plain tight, though. Other methods involve poking at the catch to try and push it sideways with a thin bar of some kind. Can take hours ...

Welcome, by the way :cheers:

Just had a look at the catch on mine it looks really awkward and very difficult to get anywhere near the catch whilst shut - perhaps the dealer is best suited with there experience of this sort of thing to avoid any excessive damage. Unless Big K posts any tips.

Otherwise it looks like breaking the grill and the plastic trim above the radiator may get you access to the mechanmism

yes both felicia and octavia have engine splash guards under neath remove the neccesary screws and will will get arm up there to manually undo bonnet release.

Thanks all - will try big k's idea before resorting to dealership.

No luck :(

Got the sump plate off and arm up there no probs, but apart from a shatter'd fingernail and two grazed knuckles nothing wanted to budge so I've had it towed away.

Why towed you ask ? Well, the reason I wanted the bonnet up was because the battery is flat.

I must have had the lid up and down half a dozen times whilst trying to boost/charge the old battery. Yet as soon as I buy a brand new battery the bonnet decides it is jammed.

That's not bad luck - I reckon that has to be the God's laughing at me :cussing:

Anyway, now I have found this forum I will keep an eye on it and thanks to all of you who posted. It's allways nice to be reminded just how useful the Net can be