Bonnet cable snapped ! Help !

[RoShamBo]

As title says, pulled the lever down in the footwell and "ping" felt the cable either snap or come away from the lever. Lever went limp, bonnet wont open.
Googled it and taken a look on here and the opinion seems to be its a PITA job to fix, may involve breaking one side of the kidney grill to get access to release the bonnet and is best done by BMW specialist as they will know what they are doing.....

Another thing was to check the lever assembly in the footwell - as the cable can ping off and get detached from there (rather than break) and the end of the cable may be accessible to pull to release the bonnet.

Anyone had recent experiences of this ? Car is a 2003 4.4i E53.

Cheers

Ro.

[Steamyrotter]

Mine broke at the handle luckily....
Took handle off and grabbed with pair of mole grips

Replacement there after is easy as there is a join half way along under the bonnet

[Colin]

Yep  mine broke as well , lucky i could grab with mole grips

[RoShamBo]

Not yet had a chance to investigate but looks like my first port of call is the release lever in the footwell.

Is it easy to get apart - to see if the cable has pinged off ?

[Steamyrotter]

Yup
Remove a piece of trim to the side and take the screw out of the centre and it should all fall apart...
Make sure you grab the screw as it could drop into the crevice below the handle...

Ask me how I know??????!!!!!

[X5Sport]

[quote="Steamyrotter"]
Ask me how I know??????!!!!!
[/quote]

Shan't.... :ras:

[Steamyrotter]

[quote="X5Sport"]
[quote="Steamyrotter"]
Ask me how I know??????!!!!!
[/quote]

Shan't.... :ras:
[/quote]

You're no fun lately......
O:-)

[RoShamBo]

So I took off the trim..........do I remove the screw that's visible (there is another if you pull the lever up, behind the lever) ?
You can see the cable I think entering the lever mechanism (just above the lever) so unless its detached from inside the lever mechanism, its snapped elsewhere.......the lever is all limp, no resistance at all through it.

Ro.

[Steamyrotter]

Yep

Undo the nut and remove with washer then handle pops off.

will be the first thing to do anyway...

If teh cable has broken elsewhere the you will either be able to pull it through (in which case it is in the first 1/2 of the run and you can work out how far)
or not (in which it will be under the bonnet and a pain in the proverbial to get at)

Look here:-
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpar ... 1238408134

items 10 & 11

[RoShamBo]

Thanks Steamyrotter

Taken off the handle and the cable is indeed snapped right there. So looks like item 10 needs replacing.
Good news ? I guess I can pull the cable and release the bonnet. Looks like I may need to remove the trim around the handle to get enough space to get a set of mole grips in there to pull the cable ?

In terms of replacing that part of the cable - job for a specialist ? At least I will save myself a few £££ on a "diagnosis" charge - I can tell them exactly what the problem is and whats needed to fix it !

Ro.

[Steamyrotter]

Simple DIY job.
Just need to remove the under dash trim and trace the cable through.
You will see the "connector" box on the wing where the 2 cables join (once you open the bonnet)

Pop the lid open, unclip the old cable and pull out, thread new in and re clip.

The hardest part i found was putting the handle back on at the end of it all!!

[RoShamBo]

OK well I have ordered the part (10 on that diagram) from BMW - £23.
Pick it up tomorrow and will give it a go........

I have a cunning plan to attach the new cable to the old , so when I pull the old one out it pulls the new one through.....

Ro.

[RoShamBo]

Have the cable now.
Looks like (because of that grommet) that you need to pull the old cable out from the footwell - don't think you will be able to pull it through from the bonnet side.

When I trace the new cable through from the footwell need to ensure that the grommet is housed properly - which is guesswork as I don't think you can see it to do it visually ?

Ro. 

[Steamyrotter]

A lot of it is done by feel, but you can see where it comes out so know the grommet has gone in correctly .

Bit of a hassle to get in right position but only took me approx 10 mins to do.

[X5Sport]

[quote="Steamyrotter"]
A lot of it is done by feel, but you can see where it comes out so know the grommet has gone in correctly .

Bit of a hassle to get in right position but only took me approx 10 mins to do.
[/quote]

He's asking about the bonnet cable though........ O:-) :spiteful:

Oops, sorry, wrong section