960 tried to kill me!

[JamesB]

I wonder if this has happened to anyone else ... the bonnet on my 1996 960 flew open on an M4 slip-road on Saturday morning. Thankfully I managed to coast to a halt, hazards on, and two very nice chaps in 4x4s blocked the slip road while I gingerly pulled the car across and onto the verge. Most unnerving.

The bonnet had bent right back on its hinges, ripping the gas struts out of their sleeves and, I fear, bending the hinge mechanisms. We called the RAC, who sent a very nice chap to get us on the way again; his diagnosis was that the bonent catches were all gunked up and hadn't been latching properly on the locking pins. He managed to get the bonnet shut again but it's not sitting properly, so I guess more intrusive surgery and possibly hinge replacement is needed - along with a new bonnet release cable.

Having been thoroughly shaken by the experience, and particularly the thought of the ramifications if this had happened literally 20 seconds letter, when we would have been on the M4 proper at 70mph, rather than on a slip road at half that, I'm struggling to regain confidence that this won't happen again. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Or is it just an unfortuante (but at the same time very lucky) one-off?

Cheers

James

Glad you are ok , James, i would have thought the bonnet catch would have caught the bonnet, call it paranoia but i have just pressure washed my catches and re greased them, maybe we should have stuck to Saab's then.:o :-)

[Rooster]

I had a mate with a citroen saxo that did the same, but the bonnet came up and smashed the windscreen and caved the top of the roof in in the middle where the aerial was.

He was only doing around 40mph at the time aswell but it didn't half make a mess

[migrator]

Hi James,

Your 960 should have two bonnet catches and a central safety locking arm. For both catches to 'let go' and for the central arm not to catch the bonnet all at the same time is down to a very unfortunate 'one off'.

However, it does bring home the point that even these simple devices need to be checked for operation. I always pull up hard on the bonnet leading edge after closing it to ensure that the catches are working.

Have you had the operating cable checked to ensure that it is letting the catches close properly?

[dave r]

Almost exactly the same thing happened to me when I had my 240GL and yes my incident was the fault of a gunked up bonnet cable which left the catch half closed.
A bonnet catch release cable, one of those little bits of motor car that the maintenance of which can easily be forgotten.
Dave.

i guess this points to the endless safety of the design feature of the 300 series - the bonnet is hinged at the front edge! bit of an arse to work on the car, but much safer surely?