Problem opening bonnet on Volvo 240

Hi,

I'm having trouble opening the bonnet using the white plastic latch in
the driver's compartment. Does anyone know how to fix this or get the
bonnet open another way?

Regards,

Han.

 

Is it left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive?

I have no idea what country you're in, but RHD cars have more of a
problem with this that LHD, and once you get the bonnet open, the
best way of fixing it is to convert it to have the bonnet release
on the left (passenger) side like a LHD car has.

 

It's a right hand drive car. Any ideas on how to get it open?

Han.

 

Climb under the front of the car, you'll be able to look up at the latch
mechanism from underneath behind the front bumper and work the lever with a
screwdriver.

 

i'm in the same situation as the original poster... can you explain why
this works? Is it the angle the cable comes awy from the latch at? Mine was
VERY stiff for a while and now has simply siezed, i've taken off the
undertray that was obscuring access but not tried the screwdriver thing
yet...

Pharm..
--
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

 

On LHD vehicles, the bonnet cable pulls directly upon the catch.
On RHD vehicles, a small additional lever converts the cable
pulling from the right side to moving the catch that moves to the
left to open. The additional part slides against the catch at a
bad angle and always needs more effort to pull the cable.

The body of the car has a grommet on the left side where the LHD
cars have their bonnet cable. If you disassemble the RHD cable,
you can shift the grommet to the right side and reassemble the
cable on the left side. The holes in the body are all there, and
the clamp that secures the bonnet end of the cable to the
underside of the panel in front of the radiator fits into a hole
on the left side (a little further away from the catch IIRC) and
the only additional parts needed are a small clamp screwed to the
end of the inner cable after the inner is fed through a hole in
the catch lever. The part I used there came from a Holden and
was used for exactly that purpose - there are bound to be other
vehicles with a small clamp on the bonnet cable.

The trim underneath the dash will need a small amount of cutting
to allow the bonnet release to come down through it when it goes
back into place.

The only drawback is that the RHD cable appears to be slightly
short and tends to sit above the battery to reach. I put a
piece of vacuum hose (rubber) over the cable there just in case.

The bonnet cable on the left side is very light and easy to
operate.