Well, well. Renault bonnets.

That is cobblers IMO. The plating might reduce corrosion, but if it is lubricated properly, whether it is plated or not, there would be little corrosion. And neither is wear the cause of them failing. Lack of lubrication is. If the catch can't slide freely it can stick in the open position, or only partly close.

and the secondary catch is then too flimsy at

Again, I don't think the catch is too flimsy. AFAIA there is no evidence of the catch actually breaking. That abortion that the 'cowboy engineer' fabricated as a solution was a classic example of a bodge IMO.

The problem actually appears to be in the pivot of the catch and the plastic release mechanism. Any corrosion there could hold it open, which is what I believe has been happening. Couple that with a sticking primary catch, and you have all the ingredients of a bonnet flying open at speed.

As an engineer I tend to agree with VOSA and Renault, that it's not a design fault, unless the design encourages the ingress of water and corrosion in those particular areas. Even so, with adequate lubrication, corrosiob should't be a problem.

I think Renaults failure was in not in making it's lubrication a service item as soon as they became aware of the problem, and advising owners to lubricate it themselves, or have their garage do it. As for the Campus which apparently uses the same design, lubrication of both catches should be noted in the drivers handbook. Mike.

McKev ( snipped-for-privacy@here.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

No, but checking the oil regularly is.

And if you bother doing that, you'll notice that the safety catch is getting stiffer and stiffer before it seizes fully.

It would have been a more accurate statement if you had left off the "OOooh, no safety catch. That's unususal...?"

SteveH wrote: [...]

Thanks Steve. I'd only thought to look in section 6 (Body & Structure).

Wonder how it is applied to rear-engined cars with a front luggage compartment :-)

Chris

But until we get

Now wouldn't the manufacturers just LOVE that. What a money spinner. The cost of any service could be trebled and no-one could complain, cos it's mandatory.

Most people never ever lift the bonnet. Mike.

But I'm sure there are some drivers who wouldn't realise it's importance, or that the primary catch was also not fully engaging. As long as the bonnet appeared to fully shut, they'd carry on using the car. Mike.

And to be fair to Renault owners, who have plenty to worry about as it is, bonnet catches are (yet another) notorious weak spot on Renaults. I caught the bit on Watchdog where a mechanic had designed a solution for Renault (grind off the hooked part of the old catch and weld on a decent hook made from a bit of steel bar) and the original catch looked like it would have trouble holding a Cornflakes box shut.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Ditto. My car burns oil by design. The manual says that the level should be checked every other tank of fuel, so every 500-600 miles. In practice, mine uses less than 500ml per 1000 miles. There's 1700ml between max and min on the dipstick, and it usually does less than 1000 miles a month, so checking the oil monthly is about three times more often than strictly necessary.

My last car burnt a litre of oil while it was being run in, and then never needed topping up between services for the next 60,000 miles.

IMO, if it's possible to design an engine with 20,000 mile service intervals, it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to design a bonnet catch which is maintenance free for the expected life of the car.

I manage to do them as a matter of course no matter what vehicle I'm servicing. You'll find the Capper, my missuses Mundano, parents Mundano and the Rover I sold to my brother have copious amounts of grease on the catches.

I mean for Gods sake, the thing is getting covered with s**te everytime you take it out. It's hardly rocket science to work out it needs a quick grease.

They could take the steering wheel off too and make enough room to put the Burger King meal down.

That bit made oi laugh, that did.

Ed Zachary. It's all very well for people to bang on about it being the owner's fault ("if they bothered to lift the bonnet" blah blah bollocks) but there's an awful lot of these Clios opening their bonnets all on their own therefore there's something wrong with the piles of old s**te.

Si

Indeed. No-one seems to have offered a plausible explanation for why Clios - and their successors - suffer from this problem while other makes and models don't.

Rear-hinged bonnets have to have primary and secondary bonnet catches - and

*both* have to fail for the bonnet to open in an unscheduled way. You'd think that even the French could design something where that didn't happen quite as often!

I must agree. Talk about making mountains out of molehills. The whole issue has been blown up out of all proportion to it's seriousness.. Fair enough if a bonnet flies open at speed, it's a serious matter, but the cure is simple Nothing appears to break. It just looks like the catches become sticky if they're allowed to corrode, but I don't see that as a design fault. It's down to lack of maintenance. Maybe the clearances could to be opened up a little, as there is no need for a close fit on the pivots and sliding parts. They can be quite sloppy and still be equally as effective, but if they do fit too well, an occasional greasing is all they need to ensure corrosion doesn't stop them from continuing to work properly. No doubt they were working well when they left the factory Mike.

I agree, sort of. But we're talking real world designs here, for real life circumstances.

It's a long time since wheels falling off, auxiliary starting handles and the like have been 'normal' in motoring, people don't expect it and many wouldn't be able to cope.

The fact remains that just about every other car in the world is capable of running for 15-20 years or more with *no* maintenance of the bonnet catch without going wrong, and when they do it's usually the bonnet staying shut rather than flying up.

The secondary catch has another name. It's a SAFETY CATCH. It should be made to stay fully functional with the WORST treatment it's likely to get, not to need nice touchy feely maintenance every year. That's just not going to happen for most cars on the road, however much of a laudable aim it may be.

If it was just the bonnet catch failing so you couldn't open it at all easily (Is that a Laguna I'm thinking of, I think it might be...) then that's bad enough, but the safety catch has been a done deal on cars for 30 years or more, and Reanult have got it wrong on just this one model.

*That's* why it needs sorting out.

PS Although nobody has died from it yet in the UK, Watchdog also had a report of a passenger in a Clio bonnet-pop who did die in South Africa. It's potentially and provably a fatal flaw, regardless of whether it's a design fault or an excessive need for (not specified) maintenance. Fix it.

Given the Clio is often the choice of the single girl, do you really expect them to dip their fingers in a tin of grease every so often? Seems even the garages paid to do this don't like doing it...

Alfas did. However Alfa admitted the problem, did a recall installed a fix.

Um... how did I misinterpret "but I don't see that as a design fault. It's down to lack of maintenance."?

Then why hasn't it happened to other cars as often as it has to Renault Clios?

Si

They could afford to - they only sold eight.

;)

Si