Hi guys,

I just bought this car (94 SSM FD) and the hood release does not work.. I drove it around a little fine, but then this morning on a cold start, the oil pressure and add coolant lights came on. I had to have the coolant sensor replaced recently so I thought maybe I just needed to top off the coolant again. The warnings ended up not coming on when I started the car a couple of hours later (maybe because it was just really cold the first time??), but it was very frustrating not to be able to open the hood to add water.

Pulling the latch (on the inside) does not release the hood and it has hardly any tension on it. I can, however, hear some mechanical noise where the latch is when pulling it, so I believe it has come undone from the latch itself where it connects to the actual lever (the green plastic bushing seems fine and looks to be mounted as it should be).

I've read all the threads about this I could find, but I have been unable to pull it off (or really understand where I'm supposed to be trying to hook and pull). I've been trying the coat hangar trick and as I have a Feed bumper that is loose and has a decent gap in between the bumper and hood (needs to be mounted better), I felt like this should be a bit easier for me, but I have not been able to figure it out.

Can anyone who has solved this problem before, or is just familiar with how these latches work provide some more insight?? A picture would be really really helpful.. reading 'put the hangar into the hole' does not really help me at this point. As a new owner, I'm really not familiar with the mechanism.

I've found a couple of photos of the latch assembly on ebay, which has helped a little. The photo of the latch without the extra bracket shows a slot with a spring and lever behind it--this makes me think the lever behind this is what I should be trying to hook onto, but on my car it seems as though there maybe isn't this slot?? It could be there, but its just really hard to see in there. Can anyone tell me if this is the spot I should be trying to hook onto? Are all the latch brackets the same for these cars? Is it possible I have one that doesn't have this?

Also--is it correct that the bracket that is mounted in front that is attached to the spring that is visible and has the little flange for your fingers is only for releasing the hood once it has been released by the latch already? (I shouldn't be trying to hook and pull this part??)

Thank you guys--this is the first weekend I've had the car and I really wanted to go out and drive it around a bit but this has me grounded. Any help would be really appreciated!

 

1st take the hood latch handle off and manually pull the cable

If that doesn't work take off the front left wheel along with the fender liner and from there you should be able to get to it with something.

 

Yes, the finger latch will only release the hood to open it all the way after you pull the hood release cable. The red circle in the picture has to be pulled to the passenger side to pop the hood. good luck

 

Thanks for the replies! I haven't had a chance yet to try this again, but this is helpful. phdofski, are you sure it needs to be pulled to the passenger side (would be to the left in the photo)? It's hard for me to see (I can't even see the slot because of the bracket mounted in front of it), but it seemed that I should be pulling it towards the drivers side (to the right in the photo). Is that wrong?

 

The same thing happened to me. I took mine to a garage to get it fixed (note – they accidentally set off the stock alarm, even though the car was unlocked, so that might happen). I've taken some pics for reference – hope this helps:




front





front - top





driver side





passenger side





rear - passenger side





rear - driver side

 

I melted my hood release ..lol. See if you can grab the wire/ cable with a bit of stiff wire bent into a hook shape and pull it to the left. I ended up putting a cable tie on the cable between the two green stopper things ... Now I just grab that cable tie with my wire hook to open it, lol... I'll fix it properly sometime.

Edit ; it needs to be pulled to the left on a rhd car, it's probably to the right on a Lhd car . Not sure how Lhd is setup

 

Wow, thanks for the pictures, HiWire! I've been out of town for Christmas the past week or so, but I will be giving it another go hopefully tomorrow.. your pictures should be very helpful. I think I just need a light that I can setup on a stand and to make a 90 degree bend in my hangar that is a bit shorter so it fits behind the front bracket easier.

 

I had the same problem. Mine actually broke right at the hood latch. I basically fabricated a slim jim made out of very sturdy, yet fairly easily bendable metal. I took a lot of patience, a lot of choice words, but I did finally get it. I tried through the wheel well, but ultimately I think I popped it by going in by the head light. While I was waiting for a new cable I took the whole assembly off, cleaned, and lubricated it.

 

Thanks for the input. I did try again last week, but shining a powerful light in the gap between the bumper and hood--I can't see that slot I thought would be the best spot at all. It really doesn't look like its there on mine. Is that possible? Does anyone have a latch assembly that doesn't have that feature?

rtrylvr, what did you latch onto with your homemade slimjim?

 

Man it's really hard to describe. It's a very specific spot where the cable attaches to the hood latch. Most of my problem is I had broken plastic jammed in there, preventing the mechanism from operating. I think it took me 3 days of trying different things before it finally popped. I was ready to take it to a shop. All I can say is you'll know when you've got a hold of it. I can look later and try and get you a pic. I did it a couple years ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy on it.

 

If you look at the 3rd picture that HiWire posted you'll see where the cable braces against that metal. On the other side of that under that spring is the mechanism. It's very small and a real pain to get a hold of. You may be able to lasso it with a cable similar to the hood cable like a bicycle brake cable or something, but I had better luck with the slim jim I made, due to the fact I had broken plastic jamming my mechanism.

 

Any luck? If you want a better idea of what you're hunting for I can take my latch off and get a pic of the under side. It's only a couple bolts.

 

Finally going to have some time today to give it another crack... if you wouldn't mind doing that, that'd be a big help! I feel like if I had a better idea of what I'm trying to catch or where exactly it sits at, my chances of success would be much higher lol. Also got my hands on some more tools so I can try taking out some of the lights or the bumper a bit to get in there better if I still can't get it.

 

Okay, so I did some more thorough searching on the forum and was able to find some pictures of the rear side of the latch assembly... soon after seeing the pictures, I had a 'doh!' moment where I realized this whole time I was not fishing around in the right spot for the latch. After realizing this, it took me about 10 minutes to use a bent coat hangar to release it. It was probably much easier for me than most other people as my bumper does not fit great and there is a large gap in between the bumper and hood--I just didn't know where the latch was and was misinterpreting what people posted about it.

Well, kinda ridiculous how long that took me but I feel great to have finally got my hood open lol.. now for the real stuff. Thanks again for the help!!

 

You can see now where the cable end goes. If you can get a good grab on that piece it should pop fairly easily.

 

Looks like I was late to the party lol. Glad you got it. I too have an ill during bumper so that helped me as well but the plastic being jammed in the mechanism ultimately made it hard.

 

the easiest thing to do is grab the actual cable with a hook and pull that, you don't have to grab/pull the actual mechanism.

Pull the whole cable, its way easier to grab
i.e put your hook around the black plastic shroud that protects the cable, and pull that

 

Yeah, thanks for the help guys! Now that I've been able to see the assembly and know where it all is and how it works, it's pretty easy to get.

Latest update--I replaced the latch cable assembly.. it wasn't hard to do, but now the hood does not want to latch (I can push the hood down all the way but it doesn't catch and stay down). Not sure if it has to do with the alignment of the latch assembly (I had to unbolt it to install the new cable) or if something is wrong with the assembly now lol.

I didn't have time to dig deeper into it because I ran out of daylight and had to button everything back up.. probably won't be able to really take a look at it until next weekend unfortunately. Anyone else have this issue or have any ideas on what the issue could be?

Thanks

 

Likely an alignment issue. Close your hood slowly and see where it's hitting. Just loosen all the bolts and move it to adjust. There are also plastic stops that are next to each headlight r that might be to high. Simply turn to adjust.

 

Id guess that the latch is just installed slightly too low.

Make sure you install the latch so it sits as high up as possible.

There will be a little wiggle room with the bolts in, but not done up tight. Make sure the latch is positioned as high as possible before you snug it down.

 

Ah, thanks for the input, 96fd3s! That turned out to be what it was.. now the only thing I have to fix with the latch assembly is removing the third bolt that secures the latch assembly (the bottom one)... the head broke off it when I tried to remove it (of course). At least I'm getting some good experience with this car and my tool collection is growing!