Can't open hood - pull tab doesn't pop out from grill
 

The under dash lever pops the hood just fine. When I lift the hood, the plastic pull tab that typically pops out from the grill doesn't pop out. When I look into the grill, I can't see the tab anywhere.

Before I dig into this, has anyone had this happen? Any recommendations for fixing it?

Grab the grill and pull the hood up hard.. bang it. Then try pushing it down a bit and bang it up again.

If not maybe the tab has broken off. Look in with a flashlight. If so you can grab it with needle nose pliers

But sounds to me like your hood isn't opening. When you pull the cable is there resistance? If you pull the release handle slowly (with it latched) you can hear one latch open then the other. There are two latches, one on each side of the hood.

It is VERY difficult to get in if the cable is broken or for some reason the latch is broken. Trust me, you don't want to get into this situation so be careful. It took me almost an entire day to get into the hood when the latch / cable came apart a few years ago.

So keep trying to pull the hood up hard and/or pull on the release handle under the dash. Hopefully you are only unlatching one of the latches on the hood and not the second one.. try again.

Once you get it open, make SURE to grease all of the latches so this doesn't happen again.

Just wanted to update. The plastic pull tab was wedged into the grill. To get it open, I stuck a long screwdriver into the holes drilled into the latch and pulled toward the passenger side. Once open, the tab was accessible and easy to free.
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