Lude Generation

Looking for a 5th bonnet catch. Cheers

Sure its not the cable?
cable is common and seems to be problem in most cases but ppl thing its the catch
I have both either way

I'm not sure it's just a bugger to close and the catch seems really loose and flimsy.

Where is the cable in the arm at the bottom of the catch? Do you have to move it down for the bonnet to close? Does the bonnet just bounce back up when you try to close it?

I'm not sure never really looked at the cable just presumed it would have been the catch. Yeah it just bounces. Had to kind of good the catch open to close it but still took ages! The catch is really wobbly and loose.

If the bonnet bounces up when you try and close it, that's normally because the catch is all gummed up and stopping the cable from returning.

To get round that as a quick fix, look down to see where the cable connects to a lever on the catch, reach down with a screwdriver and push the lever across the front of the car, towards the cable.

To fix it properly, take the catch off the car and clean/de-grease it, then put it back.

There's some pics in my UKDM profile thread (see my sig).

wurlycorner wrote:that's normally because the catch is all gummed up and stopping the cable from returning.

My one does this every year or so. Lots of WD40 and wiggling the release lever solves it.

Merlin wrote:My one does this every year or so. Lots of WD40 and wiggling the release lever solves it.

Yeah mine was like that for a couple of years, then that stopped working too, so I decided I'd better get off my arse and do something about it properly

Haven't had a problem since cleaning/de-greasing

Give the catch a good clean up with WD40 or similar and tighten down the bolts etc. Is it the actual arm of the catch that is wobbly?

Might be worth unclipping the cable from the catch near the driver's feet and on the bonnet mechanism and seeing how freely it moves. It should be a very smooth motion with no catching/sticking.

They will dry out over time and older ones can be re-oiled with WD40 or a much better oil like GT85. If you have the room you can often fit one of these to help with oiling the cables: Cable lubricator

Modern cables usually have self-lubricating sleeves which can be damaged by trying to lubricate them yourselves apparently but I don't think Preludes are new enough to have these, its mostly on new motorbikes for example.

Mine was really bad, often being almost impossible to close a couple of years back. I then replaced the cable with a new one, worked great for a few weeks before I front-ended the car and bent the new cable so mine often doesn't close first time again!