Bonnet release

[Spanish S2]

I am finding it increasingly difficult to open my bonnet. It's never been easy, opening on one side and not the other, having to press down on it to release the other side. Now, neither side open's until I press down on both sides a few times it finally releases after I've pulled the lever half a dozen times. The lever and pulley had worked loose on the bracket at the side of the steering column, I have tightened that up, but it has made no difference. Is there anything I can do to ease the problem. Cheer's.

[ukflyboy]

I had a similar problem, including a bonnet catch wouldn’t ever actually latch closed. Best bet is to take them out and give them a good clean down, grease and they work freely and stick them back in. Give me a shout if you need need more details on how to get them out!

[phillpot]

What sort of condition are your bonnet hinges in? If they are bending/collapsing (as they do) that will throw the alignment of the catches out?

[v8s4me]

If you don't fancy taking the whole latch out, you may get an improvement just by picking out all the old mastic and using wire to "floss" between the plates. This worked for me and freed up the catch by a small, but significant amount. My bonnet had been constantly pinging open for years, but since cleaning the latch it now stays shut.

See here and my post & photos on 22/7.

[greymrj]

Take care not to stress the cable too much. I totally agree about checking that the catches are free and lubricated, and that the hinge points haven't distorted, both were issues on my S1. The other was that the cable had partially seized, I pulled it a bit too hard and it snapped! Bit of a bugger to get the old cable out but it proved to be a relatively easy fix; I went to a good bike shop and got two modern cable outers cut to the correct size and an ultra long tandem bike rear brake inner. Threaded through from one end with a cable clamp on the other.
One day I am going to replace that badly designed bonnet pull handle with one an engineer might design...but out of sight....!!!

[Top Gear TVR]

alignment?

try sticking some masking tape over the catch holes and gently lowering the bonnet to see if the pins align properly....

[Spanish S2]

Thank's all, will check bonnet hinges, clean and lubricate latches and check for alignment and hope for an improvement.