2004 Vauxhall Vectra bonnet

get somebody to sit on the front taking the preasure off the clip (against the spring),then pull the lever.

This is from Vectra forum ,


25th December 2007, 21:34 #50



Join Date: Dec 2006

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I took it to a mates garage, he punched the bottom grill in and removed it, then putting his hand through he unscrewed the main grill from the inside.

Then it was a case of prising open the latch cover, and popping the lock.

Turns out the cable casing had slid out of place next to the headlight, so a simple adjustment and viola ! bonnet is now popping fine. luckily we didnt have to replace the whole cable assembly, damn it looked complicated.

less than an hour to do, didnt want any money but I gave him £25 anyway, and I'll go back to get my timing belt done by him too.

Well, I've just had a very similar problem, bonnet release not working, but on mine the release cable had come out of the bonnet catch.

It was a real hassle to get to the catch mech', took me from 10.30am to 5.00pm!!

Had to remove bumper, of course 3 out of the 6 torx screws in the wheel wells stripped the torx heads and so had to have a slot cut in them to undo, Grrrr!! Then after popping out the 4 plastic rivets underneath I found that there's 2 on top that seem to only be releaseable if you have the bonnet open, Arrrghhh!!

However, I found that if you have removed all the other fittings (ie the 6 screws and the 4 rivets underneath) and you pull the sides of the bumper forwards, you can pull the bumper out enough to get a flat bladed screwdriver ( one with an insulated shaft to protect the paintwork ) in and prise open the plastic rivet on each side. Whoo hoo, bumper off!!

Next problem, My Vec C is a 2003 2.0Dti with aircon, I discover that I have 3, yes , radiators all stacked in front of each other resulting in a clearance space that varies from about 4cm at the bottom to 1-2cm at the top where the grill is on the bonnet and along half the length of the top area there is a plastic shroud that stops all attempts to get even the tiniest of fingers past it.

To get a bit better access I removed the metal box section that is hidden behind the bumper (I'm sure that there's a proper name for it, but I dont know it), easy job 6 torx bolts and it slides off.

I could only just get my hand up far enough to feel with my finger tips the bonnet pin that goes into the catch, so I thought I'll have to do as quoted and remove the bonnet grill. Great idea, but I could only get to the bottom 4 screws because of the 3 stacked radiators (air-con, intercooler, engine cooler) and even then I had to use just a 25mm phillips bit held in vice grips to undo the screws a quarter turn at a time.

I ended up breaking the top mountings for the grill, fortunately they broke without any visible (from the outside) damage, and that enabled me to then prise open the plastic shroud that covers the locking mech' and with a long screwdriver release the bonnet.

I then saw that the end of the release cable had somehow come out of the catch release so it was just a matter of hooking it back in and replacing everything.

Boy what an ordeal, and all this to put 0.75L of oil in to top it up.

my Vectra bonnet would not open due to the cable becoming detached from the bonnet catch. A problem bound to happen over the years due to Vauxhalls crap outer cable securing system. here's the solution without too much trouble.
You gain access from underneath by removing the whole plastic cover from beneath the engine 8 screws either side, 2 in the front and 4 quarter turn screws in the middle . Now everything is done by feel , If you insert your arm up the font of the engine passenger side at the back of the radiator alongside the thick rubber hose as far as it will go in the direction of the bonnet latch, you will eventually feel the problem, where the lug of the cable has come out of the retaining loop. It may take a while before you find the best route avoiding all the smaller cables/hoses but you will get there eventually . when you have located the loop the next job is to form a hook on the end of coathanger wire and feed it up until you can hook it on to the release loop then its just a matter of pulling to the left and the bonnet should release.
This job took me about an hour and a half and I don't have long arms but I should imagine if your arms are quite thick it may cause you a problem.
Anyway Iv'e proved it can be done hope iv'e saved someone the expense new front grill and many hours labour