memoirs of a bonnet catch fail

[Freeman_1986]

thought i would post up my own experiance on what happened a few weeks ago, and perhaps heed a warning. as i missed this topic, and looking back it does come up often....

basically was travaling at around 50. not overly doing it, and then bang..... bonnet flies up. smashes windscreen, and obviously trashing bonnet and roof.

tbh was quite lucky. i had just gone around a corner (which i usually bolt it round, but never that day for some reason) if it had gone up on the corner, it could have been worse. i had my misses in the car who was screaming, which never helped lol. but managed to pull over on the side of the road.
i thought the car would be unrepairable, as in i thought the (pillars?) were bent in etc. bassically s**t myself. not even had the car long, was imaculate, 37k on the clock etc. but they were fine. managed to get a new bonnet, reprayed, and a bodyshop that did an amazing job and about a week later, looks like it never happened.

all in all to repair, £750 for bodywork/spraying/labour etc. and 50 quid for bonnet. (and obviously, new catch) i have read through some horror stories of it happening, costing up to £2000 to fix as there was more damage. im suprised no one has been killed because of this. all it takes is someone going .... ahem... 70mph down motorway in fast lane and it happening......

anyway, as you would probably guess, renault never gave a f**k. they said it wasnt taken back when the recall happened but a letter was sent. which was no good to me.


if you're unsure if its been done... take it to a renault garage. renualt told me if it wasnt taken back when the recall happened then they will supply and fix the catch for nothing and my number plate would have flagged up.

i know this has been covered many times after searching for it... but if this can save 1 clio by an owner reading it.... then it will be worth it

 

[Dan1587]

Ah no, that gutting mate. I got mine done a couple of weeks ago, just by simply phoning my local dealer and asking.
Glad you got it done at a good rate mate.

 

[R-Sport.]

ouch-

i had that happen to me at 30 MPH- was very lucky to only pinch the bonnet--

Scary when you can see where your going-
S

 

[jenic]

A good reminder that everyone who hasn't yet should take their car in.

I took both mine in, takes them about an hour and its free, you'd be an idiot not to do it!

 

[blake87]

Gutted.... ive just bought a 172.. whats the issue did they have a recall and if so how can i tell if mines been done?

 

[Dan1587]

Phone your local dealer and ask if its been done. They will ask if its rusty (Sounds simple I know) but if not they will book it in and do a free health check.

 

[Freeman_1986]

as said. if u tell them your number plate they would be able to see if it got taken in or not. if not then they will do it for free. if i had heard about it then i would have taken the car in. but never knew. aparently it was on watchdog and everything

 

[.Stevo.C.]

Had this happen to be at 80 mph albeit in my 306 the fail safe catch had failed the bonnet few open and made a pretty mess got it repaired at the expense of Peugeot Eccosse. s**t scary though.

 

[banderson]

are all models affected? ph1's ph2 172 and ph2 182?

 

[Alastair.]

Make sure your bonnet is closed/locked, and it wont happen, simples.

 

[pendulumx]

I remember it being on Watchdog at least 3 times, and I remember thinking "Renault are handling this really badly", I seem to remember them first denying there was a problem at all, and then saying it was down to owners not maintaining the catch properly.
Bonnets flying up on Clio's has happened to hundreds of people, no doubt about it.

 

[Gavin J]

I had a letter off renault about my phase 1 172 about 4 months ago, got to take it in when its motd again.

 

[clancy]

as above, are all models included in this recall ? non sports included, never heard of this before

 

[Jon.G]

as above, are all models included in this recall ? non sports included, never heard of this before

Non-sports are included. Renault did it on my 1.2 when I took it in for an MOT. As Jenic said its FOC.

 

[Freeman_1986]

im assuming all models. my mate took his 1.2 16v in after it happened to mine and it flagged up as not being taken in and they did it free of charge.

 

[ryanhavana]

I was very fortunate, mine flew up but somehow the bonnet was not smashed, little dent in my roof though.

 

[VeinAST]

I've had it done on both my two phase 2's as soon as I got them.

 

[bill]

this just happened to my mate at usc at 100mph up the strip in his rusty astra gte turbo, smashed windscreen so he decided to take the tailgate off and remove the sunroof and continue running for the weekend lol, still managed 12.7.

going ring up and see if mine has been done!

 

[Gary_F4R]

Wont have this problem with a mk1

 

[Yellow Dave]

This comment won't be liked by 99% on here, but IMO simple and regular maintenance would lead to 0% of this happening. If it's left, never checked to see if it's sticking / dirty / corroding anything can fail. But if the bonnet catch fails it has much higher consequence's.

I saw one fail. The guy never really maintained his car. Compared it to mine that is checked and cleaned / oiled when needed and they were worlds apart. Reminds me off all those people that never oil there bike chains (me being a mountain biker) then complain that it doesn't change gear / creaks or snapped.

 

[Wakz]

Phone your local dealer and ask if its been done. They will ask if its rusty (Sounds simple I know) but if not they will book it in and do a free health check.

I phoned my local dealer and told them its rusty and they said to bring it in and theyd check it out, it was actually rusty and all they did was spray it with wd40 and thats it which even they made a crap job off by getting it over the engine cover!

 

[Mike...]

Wow how did it dent the roof like that!

Mine went on a Ph1 172 and dented the roof but assumed that only happened becuase it hit the aerial base.

Little bits of poo came out when it happened to me. Up a mountain road, in the wet and wind, was lucky as hell where it happened on the road though,one of two straight pieces of road on about a 7 mile stretch. Ended up having to drive about 20 miles back home at 30 mph.

 

[Rob669]

I very stupidly did a sprint run to 100 mph on an airfield and after a days racing with the bonnet not properly closed. I had opened the bonnet to let the engine cool down after my last timed run and I didn't close it completely before doing the sprint. I had a slightly numb feeling after when I realised what I'd done. It did stay closed, just on the latch fortunately. Mine has been checked at the time of the recall.