My bonnet is stuck!

[Rose Royce]

Yesterday I installed my gas struts for the bonnet, following Blair's excellent instructions, with a few adjustments. Similar to some others I had to install the top bracket facing inwards because the bonnet did not close properly when I installed them with the ball stud facing outwards. When I changed them to face inward it was better. Then I installed the bottom bracket under the bottom hinge plate after trying both ways and having it under seemed to work well with the bonnet sitting properly. We installed the struts and proceeded to open and close the bonnet a few times to make the final adjustments.

Everything was going well but the bonnet was sitting higher on the left side (as you are sitting inside the car) especially near the headlight pod. At one point we pulled the handle to open the bonnet but it did not open...in fact the handle does not come back as far as when you normally open the bonnet. We tried everything we could think of, including removing the inner fender and pulling and jerking the actual cable between the firewall and where it disappears up into bodywork near the motor. We turned on the headlights to see if we could have more access, but nothing works! I drove home and ran the car up on ramps and crawled under the front to see if I can have access to the cable or the latch from underneath, but everything was too hot, so I left it overnight. Today we took another look at it from underneath but there is not enough access to do anything that we can see. Next, I removed the inside ( high beam ) lights and propped up the pods to have access from each side, and with the help of mirrors, we can see and feel the mechanism, but have not had any success in releasing the bonnet.

There are two other M100's in the Montreal area, and I will try to get in touch with the owners and make arrangements to go see the cars and examine the mechanism, but at this time I cannot think of any other approach. One of the potential options would be to remove the front bumper, but that is rather drastic, and I'm not even sure of it is possible to remove it, and if so, does that give us the required access to the mechanism

I did find an old thread where someone had a similar problem, but at that time there was no solution which solved the problem and the last post dated back to 2007 I believe. Does anyone have any ideas...at this time I am completely stumped. I will talk to my car buddies and am reaching out to the LEC community for suggestions.

This was part of my TO DO list to have the car in prime condition for my upcoming trip to Princeton NJ for LOG 36 in early August. The only thing left is new front brake pads which just arrived this morning, but I have to resolve this other thing before undertaking the trip to Princeton. Hope someone has some bright ideas

[lotustonybassplayer]

maybe push down on the bonnet at catch area while someone pulls the bonnet cable to relieve the pressure on the catch. i fitted struts to my boot now my remote release doesnt work due to the pressure of the struts on the catch . just an idea ?

[Rose Royce]

maybe push down on the bonnet at catch area while someone pulls the bonnet cable to relieve the pressure on the catch. i fitted struts to my boot now my remote release doesnt work due to the pressure of the struts on the catch . just an idea ?

I tried that but it does'nt help. How do you open the bonnet if your remote release does'nt work?

[lotustonybassplayer]

It's my boot it works with the key it's since I fitted struts it's pushing against lock and the solenoid is not powerful enough to pull the catch. I was going to try some weaker struts. I do have the bonnet struts fitted and have no problems with the bonnet. No help for you tho. Hopefully someone will come along with a solution.

[Elanlover]

If the hood (bonnet) is sitting a bit high on one side it might be that the rubber stop needs to be screwed down lower. This may very well be the reason the hood doesn't open. If it is, the hood likely "just" closed when you dropped it and the latch attached to the underside of the hood is too tight against the catch mechanism. So, pulling the release in the car won't cause the hood to pop open because the catch won't release far enough due to pressure from the latch. There could be other reasons of course (like a broken cable) but let's hope that's not the case.

Instead of pushing down on the centre of the catch area try pushing down on the high (left) side to level out the hood while someone gives a strong tug. Don't forget to let off the pressure as soon as the release is pulled to its maximum extent.

[dapinky]

Aditionally to the above, when i replaced my bonet following the respray, it took a few attempts to line everything up - when the bonet wouldn't release on the handle, i found that I needed an assistant to pull the handle gently, whilst I wobbled and manoevered the bonet to cause it to unlatch - it worked best for me by raising the headlamps so i could grab hold of both front side edges of the bonet and gave it a gentle wobble - then it just popped up and I could adjust the position of the latch.

[Rose Royce]

If the hood (bonnet) is sitting a bit high on one side it might be that the rubber stop needs to be screwed down lower. This may very well be the reason the hood doesn't open. If it is, the hood likely "just" closed when you dropped it and the latch attached to the underside of the hood is too tight against the catch mechanism. So, pulling the release in the car won't cause the hood to pop open because the catch won't release far enough due to pressure from the latch. There could be other reasons of course (like a broken cable) but let's hope that's not the case.

Instead of pushing down on the centre of the catch area try pushing down on the high (left) side to level out the hood while someone gives a strong tug. Don't forget to let off the pressure as soon as the release is pulled to its maximum extent.

Blair,
We were working on the adjustments when this happened...in fact I had opened and closed the bonnet a few times after the struts were in place. The rubber stoppers were , and are still off because we found it was easier to turn down the screw when we had them off. Right now, I am alone, but someone will be here later and I will try your suggestion with the extra arms and legs. The bonnet is higher and moved towards the back on that side. In fact it is tight against the wiper. I squeezed a small piece of plastic between the bonnet and the wiper to prevent damage, and I will not use the wipers until this is sorted.

[Rose Royce]

Aditionally to the above, when i replaced my bonet following the respray, it took a few attempts to line everything up - when the bonet wouldn't release on the handle, i found that I needed an assistant to pull the handle gently, whilst I wobbled and manoevered the bonet to cause it to unlatch - it worked best for me by raising the headlamps so i could grab hold of both front side edges of the bonet and gave it a gentle wobble - then it just popped up and I could adjust the position of the latch.

We removed the sealed beams on the inner side of each pod and propped them up after "dis-activating" the linkage to have more access. We did prod and pull the bonnet from each side whilst pulling on the release as you suggest but nothing would budge. We can actually see the mechanism with a mirror, by reaching inside through the light pods and tried to hook and pull or push to release the lock but no luck so far.

[Elanlover]

So, its not just high but well off centre and pushed back. That makes it harder but I suspect that the problem is still the same. The latch is tight against the catch mechanism and won't release when the cable is pulled. It may take some extra strength to really pull the cable (hopefully without breaking it) so that the catch releases the latch. (all this sounds a bit Cat in the Hat to me).

[Rose Royce]

Well the good news is that I managed to get it openend. I went to see a friend who also has an Elan and examined the mechanism. I could not easily see a reason for my dilemma. We came back and applied some lubricant spray via the access provided by the raised light pods. While a buddy pulled on the release handle we had a good grip on the bonnet (since the light pods were raised) and pulled and jerked up and sideways, rather violently and all of a sudden it popped. We could see that it was binding on the one side, but managed to open it.

In fact it was slightly out of alignment, maybe 1 or 2 mm, but that was all it needed. We did one final adjustment of the hinges and could see that it was more in line with the fenders. I made sure to lubricate the hinges and all of the locking mechanism, and it has been fine ever since.

[Elanlover]