Hi Bear. I don’t think there are any stupid questions when it comes to the mk4 Leon, it keeps surprising me with its stupidity. I assume it was designed for lhd cars where it would make sense to have the driver door open while the bonnet is up.
The lever bangs into the door card of the passenger door, it’s ridiculous.
@DougS - Agree that it was probably designed that way for safety reasons specifically with LHD cars in mind; as you’ve said, it’s necessary on a LHD Leon for the driver’s door to be open to use the bonnet release lever, so the car will always be stationary when the lever‘s operated and there‘s no risk of it being inadvertently pulled while the car’s being driven. That’s fine if you have a left hand drive car, but as you’ve discovered, that logic falls down if you happen to have a right hand drive Leon.
It’s a good example of an inconsistent approach across VAG brands - my RHD VW has the bonnet release on the driver’s side, so it can be only operated when I open the driver’s door. I’m assuming that LHD VW’s have the bonnet release lever in the same location as it is in your car - i.e. on the left hand side.
Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle.
Just thinking about your battery; it’s not unknown for batteries in VAG cars to fail within the first three years (there are reports of this happening on some VW forums on the Golf), so as your 70 plate car’s still under the 3 year factory warranty, in your position I’d be looking to get a replacement battery under warranty. Another thought; do you have a dash cam that’s left running in parking mode when you‘re not using your car? If so, then that might have caused your battery to drain.
