Thirty seconds under the hood can save yourself hood latch grief
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Joined: Nov 2003
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From: Spend my time between northern West Virginia and northern Florida
1997 E-320 Elegance, 1999 E-320
Thirty seconds under the hood can save yourself hood latch grief
While playing under the hood on my '97 E320, I inadvertently left a socket on the cross panel beside the driver's side hood latch. When I tried to shut the hood, the passenger side latched but driver side did not. A bit of end-of-the-fingers lifting found and removed the offending tool, but the driver's side still refused to latch when I applied pressure to it directly over where the latch would be. Step two was to try to unlatch the hood from inside so I could then latch it correctly. Try as I might, the passenger side would not unlatch and the driver's side would not latch, even though the under-dash latch in the cabin seemed to be functioning properly.
A call to the dealer for suggestions yielded none except that I bring it in and they would try to figure out some way to open it, but it would be on my nickel at standard mechanic's rate.
Figuring that to be out of the question, I proceeded to play with the hood and latches for the next hour before deciding to approach things from the bottom up ...literally by removing the undercarriage panels in front and snaking my hand around in an effort to reach either latch - to close the driver's or open the passenger's side.
I had a few verbal hints from a friend with a 2001 E-320 who said he could see daylight when he opened his hood and looked down from above the passenger side latch.
More than a few scratches and bruises later, I found that reaching around outside of the air cleaner intake and streatching my arm as far as I could, I can manually release the passenger side latch - the hood was now open.
Here is what malfunctioned and how we can all prevent it from happening to us: There are really two completely different release systems with their only common point being the driver's side hood latch. There is one cable from the under-dash hand pull to the driver's latch and a completely different cable from the driver's hood latch across the front of the car to the passenger latch. When the passenger latch closed and the driver's latch could not (the socket was in the way), the cable across the front of the car developed about 1/2" of slack in it and the end on the passenger side became disengaged from the latch. It is only held in place with a small piece of lead melted on the end of the cable and laying loosely in a metal receiver of the latch - similar to a hand brake on a bicycle. The prevention only takes a pair of small pliers or channel locks to close the passenger receiver metal just far enough that the cable cannot jump out (but not so tight as to pinch or rub the cable.) Thirty seconds and the cable can't ever jump out leaving your hood half latched!
A call to the dealer for suggestions yielded none except that I bring it in and they would try to figure out some way to open it, but it would be on my nickel at standard mechanic's rate.
Figuring that to be out of the question, I proceeded to play with the hood and latches for the next hour before deciding to approach things from the bottom up ...literally by removing the undercarriage panels in front and snaking my hand around in an effort to reach either latch - to close the driver's or open the passenger's side.
I had a few verbal hints from a friend with a 2001 E-320 who said he could see daylight when he opened his hood and looked down from above the passenger side latch.
More than a few scratches and bruises later, I found that reaching around outside of the air cleaner intake and streatching my arm as far as I could, I can manually release the passenger side latch - the hood was now open.
Here is what malfunctioned and how we can all prevent it from happening to us: There are really two completely different release systems with their only common point being the driver's side hood latch. There is one cable from the under-dash hand pull to the driver's latch and a completely different cable from the driver's hood latch across the front of the car to the passenger latch. When the passenger latch closed and the driver's latch could not (the socket was in the way), the cable across the front of the car developed about 1/2" of slack in it and the end on the passenger side became disengaged from the latch. It is only held in place with a small piece of lead melted on the end of the cable and laying loosely in a metal receiver of the latch - similar to a hand brake on a bicycle. The prevention only takes a pair of small pliers or channel locks to close the passenger receiver metal just far enough that the cable cannot jump out (but not so tight as to pinch or rub the cable.) Thirty seconds and the cable can't ever jump out leaving your hood half latched!
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 75
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i have a similar problem
Just recently I've found it harder to lock my hood. On more than one occasion I close my hood, to then find it open a few minutes later. When i close my hood, i always check to see if locks into place, i know something is loose or wearning out. I'm not too sure what to tighten or check.
