Stuck lock, bonnet won’t open ,,,
You do not need to drill holes in the grill or pay ford £200+
DIY..How?
Look into the grill at the top you will find the bottom of 6 plastic revscrews, 4 you get two via the grill slots use a chisel and cut them off, Then one either end of the grill. Place the chisel between two plastic layers, gently lift , check and cut, one each end.
With a wiggle that’s the top loose, There are two clips holding the bottom in place Put your fingers through the bottom slot in the grill, push down clip and greatly pull the grill, do both sides, It won’t come right out but your aim to loosen it., The lock is held in place in a sleeve with a plastic clips each side, you have push the barrel with a suitable item, this is to push it out of the sleeve and out of its housing, It may need a tap!!
Gently wiggle and pull the grill off
Lock
The lock is a ‘lock barrel along a shaft to a white plastic coupling’ this fits in to the ‘bonnet lock’
The security is at the coupling to bonnet lock in the form of a cross shaped plastic key
The key is fitted and held in place in the coupling, and when installed it’s fitted in to the lock, and once it’s in the lock part it will not come out, so therefore any jolt, pull, movement dislodges the plastic key from the coupling side and due to its design it will not slot back in so the lock barrel just rotates
To open you have to apply pressure on the shaft towards the left and into the coupling and turn the key in the lock barrel at the same time in a aim to get the coupling to catch the plastic key (take a few minutes) but it opens in the end if this is the fault, (alternatively remove the two bolts that hold the bonnet catch to the bonnet)
Once bonnet open remove the bonnet lock mechanism, then with draw the lock barrel, shaft, coupling, By looking in side you will understand regarding the cross key
Anyway you need to remove one of the catches from the side of the plastic key This way it will fit back in to coupling.
Reassemble
This is a brief description But the cost to me was 45 minutes, £2 for a pack of plastic rivets / screws, and I cached my bumper with the chisel £5 for a touch up stick Total £7. Well worth the time and effort
phil, November 2009
