Thanks!! This saved me!!! same plastic connector broke. I took your advice and went straight to the bolts at the latch. It took me about 10 minutes with a skinny10 mm spanner.
I’ve just repaired the same issue...with a 2016 Golf GTI it is an absolute nightmare, no space to get your hands from underneath. I bought 2 mini hand pumped square air bags from Lidl..£7 each and put them between bonnet and grill just either side of these 10mm screws and jacked the bonnet open (really carefully) by about half an inch or so. As the screws undo you can jack it open a bit more...bonnet opened in about 15 minutes, no damage and no expensive garage repair or broken grill as some garages suggested I may have to do.£180+ for a new gti grill plus all that labour, bollocks to that...all in cost me £40. Mind to free up the release mechanism as mine was stiff as hell.
I got went by the fender and belt the plastic on place and with a flat head I inserted it by the spring and moved the internal black plastic piece and then it opened. I’m going to try to fix this with a parking brake connector which should work. If you don’t hear back it worked. Saved $500 dealer price tag. Also I didn’t want to do that since their part isn’t good to begin with and the cable itself is fine.
Mindaugas Dobilas I would assume it’s on the left hand side in your case. The cable has to go back to where the bonnet release is located 👍 Best of luck with your repair job 👍
My battery is flat and the door key hole is damaged so I can’t access the battery to charge it or open the bonnet internally. I’m going to give this a go. I’ll update on how I get on.
I had this problem over the weekend and had to cut my grille open to get access to the bonnet catch bolts. My hand got absolutely wrecked trying to go up through the wheel well... the xenon lights are much bigger and space there is even tighter. Stupid design by VW, there should be a backup release method.
Chris Holloway yeah it nearly broke my heart too! My next job is to replace the drain hose pipe at the back of the VW badge on the bootlid as I have a leak in the boot! Once that’s down I must also replace the electric window switch on the drivers side 🙈🙈😂 VW make a great car mechanically but the electronics and some of the fittings leave a lot to be desired🙈🙈😅
@@kildareeman Its amazing that the cable junction box has been a flawed design for so many years. That part is absolutely critical, yet its made of tiny plastic components which can either snap off (like mine did, the part where the ball connects into broke) or the box just flaps open and releases the cable.
