Hi Team,

Well I was planning on taking a 2hr trip today and pulled the release cord and nothing popped. So I went to look at the latch and the cord isn't broken, but its bulb pulled out of the latch mechanism (nothing is now connected to release the latch).

I have to get the hood open, but how?? Any help please....

 

Exact same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. The hanger/pry method listed in these threads worked for me:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...t=hood+release
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...t=hood+release
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...t=hood+release

 

Who has a latch mechanism they will look at for me? I need to know which way, pass. or drivers, the cable pulls the latch? Not the hook, but the main mechanism pivots toward what side?? I may be able to jam a screw driver in there and push it over *fingers crossed*

I am looking at the FSM and the picture doesn't go into detail.

 

We posted at the same time.
Thanks Rynberg, yes those threads are the same thing. That cheap green plastic piece broke on mine. I am bending a coat hanger now and going to try DamonB's method.

 

Hope you get it fixed. Not being able to get the hood opened is a sure way to get the Rotary gods to make something else go bad under the hood.

 

Isn't it though? On most cars I would figure no big deal but on this one the reaction is "My god! What if something is going wrong in there right now and I don't know about it!"

 

I inspect under my hood regularly. Oil, coolant, visible vaccumm hoses, intake and intercooler pipes and couplers. It's like the preflight inspections I used to do on F-18s when I was in the Marines.

 

This also happened to me. Sticking my arm in there to get at the rear of the Mazda emblem caused the hood-latch cable to come off without me noticing. The green plastic thing is only a guide and is not really neccesary, and breaks quite easily. the end of the cable has a ball on it that goes into the bottom of the latch and pulls toward driver's side. It goes into a slot from the rear side. I was able to get at that part with a wire hook after the following procedure. Kudos to the guys at Gaithersburg Mazda who helped me out for free pizza after hours with the local car club.

I first pried open very carefully with a wide putty knife and screwdriver and the rubber bumper goes down a bit (The car had just been painted two weeks before!). Got enough room to get a long extention and a socket (10mm?) in there and loosen the latch mechanism (2 bolts, one nut in the center). It won't come right off because of the remaining bolt, but it gave me more wiggle room.

Luckily I have an after-market fiberglass hood and the upper clasp is bolted to it. I was able to get a small wrench with a long shank onto my upper latch mounting bolts. You will not have this luck with the stock hood. It still took over 2 hours to get them loose, with one person holding the crack open and another fiddling with the wrench. Then one of the guys came over with his home-made wire hook and stuck it in there (from the driver's side) and was able to hook the latch and pull. Click!

The stock clasp is not removable, but you can also cut it with hack-saw blade and weld it back later. The Mazda techs told me the normal procedure is to get under the car and start taking the bumper off. You will not be able to get at the last few bolts at the top, so have to bend the bumper cover up and may damage the paint. I told them this was the wrong answer and we proceeded with the above method.

 

Mark^ Very good description of the latching mechanism. I too undid the bolts that I could see w/ a 10mm socket, but it got me nothing.

Sticking the hanger into the open-ended, small upside down U shaped spot on the drivers side of the mechanism is the way to go. After hours of fiddling, chipping my hood, contorting my knuckles and pulling my hair....it took no more then 5 SECONDS to use the wire and hear the click.

Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

Congratulations!

Did you have the car locked and set off the alarm like I did? Sitting 6" from the horns when they start going off is....startling.

 

thats funny that i read this post not on your mishap but yesterday too i found out the latch on my honda broke. funny thing is i can still open the hood since it never locks all the way .

 

Same thing happened to my friend a while back. The little green piece at the end of the cable broke. The guy that replaced the cable said he was lucky to have the 99 spec front which made it easier to work on.