L322 2003 L322 Can’t open bonnet -battery flat

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awkwardbob

awkwardbob

Well-Known Member
Posts
578
Location
Glasgow
Hi,

Have been quiet here for a while as life got rather busy (and expensive) and ive not had much time to spend on the L322.

After locking me out and having to have her broken into, the garage informed me that one of the bonnet latches (Drivers side) was gubbed and not ‘latching’ but that the other one was holding it firmly in place.

No Problem, thinks I, I’ll just replace the faulty latch at my leisure but when I went to try and open the bonnet, the release cable does hee-haw. The LH Latch doesnt budge.

I figured I’d just take it back to the garage after replacing the faulty height sensor but I didnt get around to it until today whereupon the car battery has gone so flat that the central locking wont work, the alarm was sounding and the key wouldn’t turn in the ignition.

So I guess I have 2 questions: How do I get the bl**y bonnet open ? Is there a fishing trick to snag the cable for the passenger side latch ?

And where best to inject 12V ? I obviously can’t get jump leads onto the flat battery as the dang bonnet is stuck shut.

Thanks for your help

Grumpy from Glasgow
 
kermit_rr said:
If you've got a 13 pin trailer socket then you've got a 10A permanent live at one of the pins, don't recall which one
Click to expand...
1729952713212.png
 
marjon said:
So you can get in the car?
Have you tried getting somebody to push down on the bonnet while you pull the latch?

If you are in the car you can find a Live to charge the battery, there are front and rear fuse boxes :).

J
Click to expand...
Hi, yes I can get into the car (thankfully fixed the broken lock barrel last time around !)

I can only open the drivers door at present due to lack of voltage. Currently charging up the stunt battery and will try via the trailer socket -that’s a great shout -failing that, is the front firebox in the glovebox ?

About to try and persuade the family to help with the pushing / pulling bonnet trick -will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions

Bob
 
awkwardbob said:
Hi, yes I can get into the car (thankfully fixed the broken lock barrel last time around !)

I can only open the drivers door at present due to lack of voltage. Currently charging up the stunt battery and will try via the trailer socket -that’s a great shout -failing that, is the front firebox in the glovebox ?

About to try and persuade the family to help with the pushing / pulling bonnet trick -will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions

Bob
Click to expand...

The trailer socket is the easiest if you have it. but you need a plug or something to plug in the ole.

yes behind the glove box or in the back behind a cover.

Don't try to start the car though any of the points we mentioned, only charge the battery.

J
 
<grumbles>
Ok so not only did the banging the bonnet trick not work, the plastic retainer for the cable snapped.

I can probably get a salvage one tomorrow but I’m starting freak out about getting the bonnet open. I wonder if the release cable has become detached where it extends to the far latch. Is there any way of getting near it / fishing / tugging it through the grill ?

Im rapidly approaching the point where sinking any more cash into it is pointless but its way too good a car to just scrap -everything works (apart from the bonnet release and the torque convertor).

I suspect this state of existential angst is just a feature of Land Rover ownership !
 
I never said "bang" on the bonnet ;).

The thing is JLR have made it hard (theft) to get into the bonnet from the outside and rightly so. I know its not much consolation to you at the moment.

I have just looked at ours (2011) and I would say first you need to try and grab the inner cable from the bonnet latch and yank on it and try again with pushing down/lifting the bonnet. Cos the next course of action would probably involve destroying a few bits to get to the latches. Which is why it would take time for thieves to try this.

The grill will be destroyed as would some other trim behind it to get the latches visible.

Did you get your battery charged?

J
 
Thanks for those, yeah, I’m already in at the cable release mechanism (which snapped in the cold this morning) tugging the cable isn’t doing any good at all and I’m worried the nipple is gonna fly off.

Annoyingly I have a 7-Pin 12N socket rather than the 13-pin one so no 12V charging option there.

I can get into the glove box and potentially trickle-charge with a second battery -although I’d need advice on how best to connect that.

I’m also parked far enough away from the house that I can’t run a mains cable hence needing to use a good battery instead of a charger.

If I can’t get the bonnet open I wonder if the next option is the AA -or do I need to take a hacksaw to the stubborn bonnet spigot thingy that’s stuck in the latch ?

Totally get the anti-theft thing -it’s just a. Real b*gger when it breaks -not that anything ever breaks on a Land Rover, obvs !
 
awkwardbob said:
I can get into the glove box and potentially trickle-charge with a second battery -although I’d need advice on how best to connect that.

I’m also parked far enough away from the house that I can’t run a mains cable hence needing to use a good battery instead of a charger.
Click to expand...

Thing is you wont charge the battery with a second battery, so you cant try to start as the load would come from the good battery.
Can you not tow it close enough? ask a Neighbor if you can run a charger from theirs?

I am sure that both the fuse boxes show a big(ish) red wire to connect a charger too.
awkwardbob said:
I need to take a hacksaw to the stubborn bonnet spigot thingy that’s stuck in the latch ?
Click to expand...

It would need to be flexible and at the risk of trashing the bonnet and/or grill.

J
 
awkwardbob said:
Thanks for those, yeah, I’m already in at the cable release mechanism (which snapped in the cold this morning) tugging the cable isn’t doing any good at all and I’m worried the nipple is gonna fly off.

Annoyingly I have a 7-Pin 12N socket rather than the 13-pin one so no 12V charging option there.

I can get into the glove box and potentially trickle-charge with a second battery -although I’d need advice on how best to connect that.

I’m also parked far enough away from the house that I can’t run a mains cable hence needing to use a good battery instead of a charger.

If I can’t get the bonnet open I wonder if the next option is the AA -or do I need to take a hacksaw to the stubborn bonnet spigot thingy that’s stuck in the latch ?

Totally get the anti-theft thing -it’s just a. Real b*gger when it breaks -not that anything ever breaks on a Land Rover, obvs !
Click to expand...
If you can reach the starter motor from under the car, you can connect jump leads to the big terminal (+) and the engine block.
 
So I’ve just been to the breakers yard to get some bits and pieces and I see where that cable is. There’s next to zero chance of being able to get to that without going in from underneath.

I think I’m going to struggle with this one.

I’m the plus side I did get a couple of decent bonnet catches, a new bonnet release mechanism and some shiny plastic trim that is damaged on mine. -all a bit of a moot point if I cannae get the bonnet open and / or get her mobile but it made me feel a bit better
 
A wee update. I Can get to the starter motor from underneath and I can likely get a cable onto the 12V supply.

Assuming I can find a suitable non oily / non rusty earth nearby and given that the supply to motor seems quite robust, would it be possible to jump start the car from there ?

I know it’ll give me the 12V to open the central locking and power the other systems but if I could start her up, I could move her to
A position where I could actually get a battery charger onto that port to get enough juice back in the battery to give her a good running around.

Answers on a postcard !

Cheers,

Bob

Ps. Was looking into having the torque
Converter replaced and gearbox rebuilt / fettled but it’s chuffing expensive. Best I’ve found is around 2K from Planet Gears riskng
To 5K for the much more local Mackie Transmissions.

Given that the car is likely only worth 1800-2500 I can’t really justify sinking that sort of cash into her but it feels so wrong to just scrap her. -maybe this should be a different thread.
 
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