Stuck Yaris Bonnet Catch

[sproutdreamer]

Wife's Yaris has the bonnet catch stuck. Any advice how to free this. I think I am going to have to take off grill-how is that fastened?

[FROSTYBALLS]

The following old topic may help -

 

[sproutdreamer]

Thanks for the links. The bonnet security catch moves ok it is the swivelling bonnet lock which is jammed. I have had both hands up the lower grill but cannot move the lock against the strong spring.

I am going to drill 3 small holes through the plastic grill, insert a screwdriver and free the lock-hopefully. The plastic grill has lots of holes just not in the right place, why on earth did they not position a hole to free the bonnet lock?

[flash22]

i think you will find a metal plate in the way

Does the bonnet not pop up ? Does the bonnet release have any resistance to it ? get someone to pull the release and push the bonnet it may release if not give it a jiggle

[sproutdreamer]

After about 3 hours grovelling on my knees, taking off  the underbody plastic covers and  loosening the soft lower plastic grill mesh I gave up and took off the bumper. Despite knowing exactly where the catch lock, not the safety hook is located I could not get at the lower end of the rotating lock piece to push it sideways. The problem is that it is at the rear of the unit right behind the body of metal parts and has no protusion to push against.

Once the bumper was off I could just see where I was trying to push and still could not do it against the spring but as soon as I slipped the spring off its end I could move the cath to unlocked but hooked position.

The cable had stretched and was not operating the release. I had been pulling down directly on the cable previously and may have had it released but I would have had to be lifting up on the bonnet at the same time, in retrospect.

I am still unsure if this is p... poor design as a small lug protruding undernieth would help immensly but perhaps theft prevention is behind the designers intention here, if so it works!

The cable is expensive at £36 and I imagine a bike shop would have one for a tenner! I thought of shortening and resoldering the lug which I would have done for myself but it is not my car. I hate to think what garage charges would have been?

[flash22]

I would have undone the release handle and pulled the inner cable with pliers or grips

hay ho you got it done

the bonnet latch is supposed to be a secure design so you can't just walk up to a car and open the bonnet nick parts off the car

[sproutdreamer]

Yes I tried that but with hindsight I needed to lift the bonnet out out its "open" slot at the same time, which I did not think about. I probably had the catch open a number of times but as soon as I let go it would lock again. The lesson is it is a two person job, one to release the catch and the other to lift the body. I know the catch is supposed to stay stable in the open position but maybe not always..

[Mick F]

This thread has sort of reminded me that I should open ours.

Can't remember when I opened it last, and even then it was to remind me how to do it.  No other reason to open it since.

The car had a Toyota service only last month, so they must have opened it !!!!! 😀

Mick.

[flash22]

Over time the grease goes hard and jams the mech - degrease it, and re-lube

 

it's an older car thing, been there, done that and got the t-shirt