How can you open the bonnet hood on a Fiat Punto when the release cable does not work?

Answer 1

We had a broken cable on 2004 Fiat punto. It had rusted through! The bonnet would not open. Because the bumper wraps under the front of the car and the top bolts holding the bumper are under the bonnet there is a problem. The prats at a Fiat main dealers told us that when this happens you have 2 alternatives. 1. smash the bumper off and buy a new bumper or 2 cut a hole in the bonnet and buy a new bonnet. Nothing changes does it with the so called 'machanics' at main dealers!. What we did was this. Just above where the number plate on the bumper is an air intake slot that has 2 unseen vertical pillars. We carefully sawed through these pillars which allowed us to carefully pull open the intake slot. This allowed us to get a hand up to trigger the catch. We used a small high pressure inflatable airbag to do this so we did not damage the front surface of the bumper, but one person pulling it open and another putting the hand up would work. When we released the air pressure you could not see where the pillars had been cut nor could we see that cutting these pillars weekened the structure of the bumper. Good luck.

It so easy.

Just get on your back under the car, get a torch and locate where the cable enters under the bonnet (it comes in from the nearside and goes into bonnet just above the radiator). Grab the outer cable and push it towards the center of the bonnet (towards the drivers side). Vuala the bonnet will open.