Citroen XM Forum

Eddie nuff wrote:



That's with the bonnet pressed down so that it is down below the line of the wing - and it will not catch! Springs straight back up.

These two pictures show what should happen.
The catch should be latched by the metal catch at the very bottom of the picture. What seems a bit odd is that the bottom catch appears to have been pulled in by the spring right to the stop, but still isn't latching the catch.

If indeed the catch is being pulled into the correct place, the failure to latch can only be down to the catch not rotating far enough, or the leg having worn down to the point it can no longer latch.

I'll see if I can dig a catch mechanism out tomorrow to have a proper look.

I wonder if what we are seeing as the stop is actually the release mechanism already acting on the latch and it should be further to the left to allow the catch to rotate more clockwise, thus allowing the latch plate to block the rotating latch.

Neither of these seems to catch all right. As far as I can tell, this is the spot you should look for:

As the rod goes down, it rotates the catch clockwise. The vertical part of the catch (black with grease on the picture) becomes visible as it emerges from under the diagonal plate. At the end of its travel, the horizontal plate at the bottom (the top of the inverted L, pulled by the spring) jumps up under the force of that spring and keeps the rotating latch from coming back. The two plates meet just where the label points to.

Using the screwdriver shaft, observe how far the catch rotates and whether it clears the point where the bottom plate can jump up. If it does, check what keeps the bottom plate from jumping up to block its travel backwards.

I pressed the screwdriver shaft into both clasps and neither would catch. So I removed the length of rod attaching the two clasps and then the os clasp would catch around the screwdriver but the ns was no different. Removed the bonnet cable from the clasp and that one then catches on the screwdriver.






Sprayed the cable with wd40 and pulled it back and forth but there's little movement on it.

Several steps forward! It's the rod/cable, then, that is stopping the catches from locking down.

Re-install the rod first, and check that both catches lock and unlock properly.
If they do, then the problem is just the cable.

If there is very little movement on the cable, my guess is that the cable outer has come out of its socket/cradle/holder/bracket at one end or the other.

Well worth spending the time to fix this, a bonnet flying open is a real heart stopper.

You have almost completed the checks I suggested in a 6 jan post.
The pull cable is two separate but linked cables.
The joint is found on the side of the main chassis rail under the LHM tank.
There is a long thin moulded black plastic cover with cable outer retaining slots at each end.
The back end of this cover can just be seen if you look down the side of the chassis by the strut head.

John

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the next time I get down. Time's not being very kind to me right now. Work should have died off after Xmas but still plenty on, I have another car on the go to replace swmbo's shed, and we're on the big bird before the month's out for a couple of weeks much needed r&r.

When the rod is attached to both clasps but no bonnet cable both clasps work fine.

As for driving with the bonnet in its present state, I learnt that one the hard way.

At least you now know it's the cable. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.

More likely he's rolling around on the floor laughing his cotton socks off.

Tempted to put a new cable in anyway. Certainly won't hurt.

That's a lot of work. I'd check out the old one first, as John suggests.