Good Afternoon Fiat fans.

I've had a 51 plate Brava (5 door) since last august, got it for a tidy 300 quid!

It popped a head gasket shortly afterwards, but oh well, still a bargain.

Now i have another problem, the boot doesn't seem to wanna close.

The gold bits are meeting, which means the boot light isn't on all the time, but the bottom hook doesn't seem to reach the top mechanism, so it can't be closed.

Any advice on this? so far my solution has been smash it with a hammer, trying to pry the bottom hook further up with pliers and taking out five screws from the surrounding plastic.

To be honest, i don't really know what i'm doing haha

Any help would be much appreciated.:worship:

Hi,
1st- open boot,
use a screwdriver to make sure that the catch actually works properly ( swings through an arc then latches,
push release button,
do it again.. repeat a few times,
add lubricant if notchy..,

if all that works o.k.,
you should be able to slacken the mounting bolts of the lock assembly ( and the lower catch plate) and push them up as high as possible ( to meet),
nip-up hand tight,
GENTLY close boot - ..when this works o.k.,
lock up mounting bolts TIGHT,

Charlie

Are the mounting bolts the square plastic things either side of the mechanism?. I'll try it again in a bit and post pictures if i can't get it done.

Gli Azzurri said:

Are the mounting bolts the square plastic things either side of the mechanism?. I'll try it again in a bit and post pictures if i can't get it done.

Click to expand...

there SHOULD be normal bolt heads,
after 5 posts on FF you can post pictures

charlie

You have to take some of the trim out to access the striker plate bolts, it has lots of movement when loose. I added a picture to show it;

I have had this for a while. I did most of what has been suggested here with no success. My simple solution---have a mate pull UP the boot release lever at the side of the drivers door. You then drop down the boot and voila !!! The problem is from the release cable I think. I have a "glue stick"wedged under it now permanently and it works a treat !!!

Thanks for the update!

So maybe the release bar is broken or bent in the latch or maybe some return spring is not right.

Aye could be. I wasnt prepared to try and strip the linkage all through the car to try and see for sure. So its the glue stick trick for a while at least!!