Morning all. I've been a member for a while but my 2016 VRS diesel estate has been so reliable I haven't posted much. Now it's come back to bite me...

I changed a dodgy glow plug a couple of weeks ago and noticed the bonnet release was a little sticky. I made a mental note to give the latch a proper clean, sprayed with a little WD40 and dropped the bonnet to check if the new glow plug had done the job. So far, so good...

When I went to open the bonnet again, no resistance on the bonnet release handle. Checked cable still attached to handle, it is. Bounced up and down on bonnet. No joy.

So I got it up on stands and went in through the passenger wheel arch. Wheel off, liner off all good. In fact it was easier than I'd expected to locate the joiner box and release both parts of the cable.

However there is no play on the bonnet latch side of the cable. I had pliers on it and was yanking as hard as I could while someone pressed on the bonnet. No joy.

I can only assume the latch has stuck in the locked position. I can get a trim tool under the front edge but there's not much to see there.

Has anyone faced the same. I'm reluctant to smash the grille as it's a pre facelift so I know it's a pain to replace and in not 100% sure it would give me the access I need. I presume the other route is from below with the undertray off but again, I'm not sure if this would work.

Hoping someone has faced the same / similar and can offer some advice. Thanks!

For anyone who suffers the same fate, it appears that the latch dropped slightly when the bonnet was slammed and that locked it up. No amount of pulling on the cable was going to shift it.

In the end I took it to a local garage and we managed to get it open by removing the latch bolts in situ. The bonnet could then be opened with the latch still attached.

It was extremely fiddly and took a couple of hours but worked in the end with minimal damage. Most likely victim is the wiring to the bonnet sensor.

Glad to hear you got it sorted.

Nightmare scenario, like a failed door lock in the closed position.