Ok i took the wire out of the inside handle yesterday, it was fine but could go back and forward about 1inch easily.
I last had it open yesterday morning, changed one of my bulbs, got fed up trying to get it in, closed up came in to see what the easiest way to change the h7s are, went back out about 20 mins later.
Came to open it, handle had a little bit of resistance then the resistance dropped significantly. There is no resistance from the wire now, it is from the spring. Hope that helps, I also managed to shove my fingers above the grille and pull the clasp under the bonnet while someone else pulled the lever, no luck though :S