Technical Removing Top Front Grill How? MK2/3 Punto

[mightykaboosh]

Hi,

I've got a Fiat Punto 2003... and the bonnet hood cable snapped. I didn't want to pay £260 to get it fixed so the garage secured it so the bonnet wouldn't be dangerous....

Thing is I broke my arm and haven't driven the car for the best part of 7 weeks, now the battery is flat and I can't get into it to charge it.

I'm guessing they secured it with wire behind the front grill?

But for the life of me I can't get the front grill off...... it only seems to have clips along the top of the grill and not at the bottom..... but these don't seem to be securing it in place ... but it is solidly on. the top clips are 5 evenly spaced clips. Is it screwed on behind the badge? It is nothing like how you do it on the fiat punto grande below:

Many thanks.

 

[mightykaboosh]

IT'S NOTHING LIKE THIS!:

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate,

From your description, you have a Mk2b with the grill on the front of the bonnet and bigger headlights, and as such your grill does not simply click in as per the Grande Punto in the video you posted.

There are a few screws/bolts at the rear of the grill as well as some tabs that secure it.

If your bonnet cable snapped, then yes you would be unable to open the bonnet, however, it should still close safely. The reason I say this is Im suspicious of if/why the garage would have secured it in the way that you say.

Firstly, when you do get the bonnet open, do not pay the £260 to have the cable fixed, fix it yourself for around £15 using THIS guide.

Have you had a look up the rear of the radiator to see if you can see the way in which the garage may have secured it? Is it possible to ring and ask IF they even did secure it?

Alan

 

[mightykaboosh]

Hi, thanks for answering. I'll have a good look tomorrow morning.

The bonnet did close before I took it to the garage, but what happened was that before I took it in to the garage... I drove it for about 3 months, everytime I went over a rough bump the bonnet would open just about a cm, just like the amount before you flick the finger catch.

This meant that over that time it I was getting small dimples / dents on my bonnet from stuff on the inside (I guess)

They quoted a lot for the replacement cable and fitting, and said it was a nightmare to fit as it had to go right around the engine bay.

I know ZERO about mechanical stuff so asked them to let me think about it.... they wired it shut / well that's what they told me.... and I took the car and didn't bother with it.

Still went through it's MOT like that... thing is now I can't get into it to refill screen wash and more importantly now.... charge the battery.

It's a 1.3 multijet with low mileage.... that's never let me down... At last MOT I had to pay for a new power steering column / ecu, so I don't really want to spend too much cash on a car that's 11 years old.

 

[Ziggy122]

The bonnet cable is the same on all the punto's

So a mk2 1.2 8v wont be much harder then a 1.3 diesel

Yes it does run around the engine bay - but as you pull 1 through as you remove the old - it's **** easy

First time it took me 45mins, when i had todo mine a few weeks later - it was done in 15Mins

Ziggy

 

[dave]

all that is behing your grill is solid metal. make a donation to the forum and send me a pm an i will sent you some nice photos and info to get your bonnet open,

 

[Ziggy122]

all that is behing your grill is solid metal. make a donation to the forum and send me a pm an i will sent you some nice photos and info to get your bonnet open,

Yes if you look at my members motor you will see where I cleaned behind me nothing you can get too

Ziggy

 

[dave]

.

great thanks for posting that on an open forum I'm sure the people getting their ECU's stolen will be very grateful

 

[skeogh]

Just trying to help, sarcasm is a little unnecessary. Simply pointing out my error would have sufficed.

 

[skeogh]

If a moderator can please remove my last post it would be much appreciated. My only intention was to help the OP.

 

[a1ant]

If a moderator can please remove my last post it would be much appreciated. My only intention was to help the OP.

Hi mate,

Ive removed the post for you. Its sad that we cant share such useful advice on the open forum as there are just too many people who want to use it for negative/ criminal purposes.

I can see you were just trying to help though

Alan

 

[skeogh]

Hi mate,

Ive removed the post for you. Its sad that we cant share such useful advice on the open forum as there are just too many people who want to use it for negative/ criminal purposes.

I can see you were just trying to help though

Alan

Thank you mate, much appreciated

 

[dave]

sarcasm is a little unnecessary.

i assumed it would be cleaned after the post was removed