Bloody bonnet latch
 

The bonnet on my bug is refusing to close properly, read the threads on here, cleaned latch, used an entire bottle of wd40 plus machine oil, still not closing.

Phoned scoobyspares to get a new cable and latch, but he advised there might be a spring missing.

There is a spring on the first latch, then a much bigger coiled spring in the middle, is there a third spring behind this?

Ive noticed, near the actual cable, where there is bullet shaped thing on the end of it, there is a small circle on this particular lever, is there supposed to be a spring on this and where does it attach to?

The cable itself does not have any tension when I pull the lever under the dash.

Thanks guys.

:cry:

has the cable simply come out of the holder in the latch hence no tension on the cable

The cable itself is in place, just not moving it seems, although it does move back when pushed with a screw driver.

have you checked the side inside the car.
it may have come out that end and you could be pulling the whole cable and not just the inside part hence the catch not moving

I had the same before MOT time last year, I somehow fixed it by exercising the spring and catch with a big screw driver and eventually it decided to work. not much help Im afraid but it seemed to work for me.

Yes I have checked inside the car too, just wondering about this phantom 3rd spring, unless me and scooby spares guy have crossed wires, the part of the cable with the bullet shaped metal at the end of it, goes through an indent on what I can only describe as a lever, this lever doesnt move unless pushed.

Im assuming the bullet part pushes it back when the handle is pulled inside the car, is it supposed to move back to its original position of it own accord?

lol, been trying that for the last 3 days!

If its any consulation I had the same problem, bonnet kept popping up. As the above statement says I too kept plying the locking latch put plenty of WD40 in then did some more plying of the latch, spring. It has sorted itself out, this was over a year ago and still fine.

if you look down into the latch in the area you can see the cable end, follow this back and you will no doubt see a little lever jammed back (it should sit under tension at the end of the cable)

get a screwdriver or similiar and simply flick this back out towards the cable end, then lubricate area

alyn