Problem opening bonnet on Volvo 240

Is it left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive?

I have no idea what country you're in, but RHD cars have more of a problem with this that LHD, and once you get the bonnet open, the best way of fixing it is to convert it to have the bonnet release on the left (passenger) side like a LHD car has.

It's a right hand drive car. Any ideas on how to get it open?

Han.

Climb under the front of the car, you'll be able to look up at the latch mechanism from underneath behind the front bumper and work the lever with a screwdriver.

i'm in the same situation as the original poster... can you explain why this works? Is it the angle the cable comes awy from the latch at? Mine was VERY stiff for a while and now has simply siezed, i've taken off the undertray that was obscuring access but not tried the screwdriver thing yet...

Pharm..

On LHD vehicles, the bonnet cable pulls directly upon the catch. On RHD vehicles, a small additional lever converts the cable pulling from the right side to moving the catch that moves to the left to open. The additional part slides against the catch at a bad angle and always needs more effort to pull the cable.

The body of the car has a grommet on the left side where the LHD cars have their bonnet cable. If you disassemble the RHD cable, you can shift the grommet to the right side and reassemble the cable on the left side. The holes in the body are all there, and the clamp that secures the bonnet end of the cable to the underside of the panel in front of the radiator fits into a hole on the left side (a little further away from the catch IIRC) and the only additional parts needed are a small clamp screwed to the end of the inner cable after the inner is fed through a hole in the catch lever. The part I used there came from a Holden and was used for exactly that purpose - there are bound to be other vehicles with a small clamp on the bonnet cable.

The trim underneath the dash will need a small amount of cutting to allow the bonnet release to come down through it when it goes back into place.

The only drawback is that the RHD cable appears to be slightly short and tends to sit above the battery to reach. I put a piece of vacuum hose (rubber) over the cable there just in case.

The bonnet cable on the left side is very light and easy to operate. :-)