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Can't open hood, driver side latch/cable malfunctioning
Hello all,
I changed the fan shroud and radiator in my car the other day. Upon completion, I closed the hood normally. This morning, I tried to open the hood to add some windshield wiper spray. I pulled the center hood latch and the hood was stuck. the middle latch worked fine, and so did the passenger cable/latch. The driver side, however, was stuck. Any advice on how to get this latch open? I can't seem to access it from the bottom, and I broke my grille to see if I could reach the cable or latch, to no avail. Any help is appreciated
Get a stout helper. One of you pushes down hard over the right latch while the other pulls the hood release firmly. Repeat several times. If/When you get the hood open, lubricate the entire mechanism thoroughly, then exercise it using a tool to fake hood closure.
This is my fear. If you look on the driver's side edge under the hood (once you get it open), you'll see where the linkage cables go across. You can open that and double check everything before you close the hood again.
Just to close this thread, i fixed the problem. My hood latch cable was falling apart. The rubber piece that is next to the ball at the end of the cable came loose, and the cable was stretched. The cable on the driver side had no tension. Even with a helper, I couldn't get it to pop open. I ended up having to open the hood as much as i could from the other side, and i used some rags and a piece of wood to hold the passenger side of the hood slightly open without damaging it. i then used a long 10 mm ratcheting wrench to get the bolts out of the latching mechanism. The gap in the hood was very small but i somehow managed. Problem was fixed when i replaced the cable starting at the point from where it splits, which is inside the engine bay, driver side kinda behind the headlight. After replacing the part, i greased the parts of the latch and latch was functioning properly.
When im in the engine bay working on something I will always check and lubricate the latches. I had a latch break years ago on a previous car so now its just something I always check.
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