suganuma

last night i pulled on the hood latch to open my hood and there was no pressure on the cable. i figure its broken somewhere between the cabin and the actual latch under the hood, but the problem is theres no way to get to the latch to open my hood that i can see. i need to get it opened ASAP to do some work before i can go drive it anymore.
if this has happened before to you or if you have any ideas PLEASE let me know

thanks

DamonB

Exact same thing happened to me a few months ago. If you can look at another third gen, you'll see the hood cable connects to the driver's side of the latch. Mine broke right at the sleeve and fell out. All you have to do is reach through that hole in the latch and give it a tug.

Here is what I did:
Use some thick rubber (maybe a couple mousepads?) and jam them in between the hood and front clip halfway between the middle of the hood and the driver's headlight. Insert a screw driver between the pads and pry the hood as far as you dare without cracking the front clip. Shine a flashlight in there and study the latch for a moment. You will probably see the release cable and can then guess where it went. There is a small slot on the bottom of the latch and about a quarter inch through that slot is the release lever. Get a coat hanger and bend a small hook in it; it has to fit through the slot. Feed the hanger in from the junction of the headlight and front edge of the hood. You will be reaching all the way under the hood across to the latch. Keep fishing in the slot until you grab the release and give a little tug. Keep the hood pried up and shine the light in to see what you are doing. You don't have to pull hard at all to pop it so if you feel a lot of resistance you missed.

I freaked out when mine broke but doing this I got into it in less than 15 minutes. Leave a wire connected to your latch so you can open it until you get the cable replaced. That job wasn't bad either; took me about 30 minutes.

Good luck. Email me if you want.

technonovice

I just want to say that this saved my a**.

scooby_si

OK stupid question maybe but it is one of my specialist subjects lol my bumper is currently sitting above my bonnet ATM having just refitted it which kinda means prying it open is a bit of a non event but there's still a chance i can get coat hanger in there & catch onto sumin (erm yes suffice to say my cable appears to of snapped). So the quick stupid question is (incase it's a differnt side to the descriptions from you fine US folks) which bit am i looking to hook & in which direction should i be pulling it? (photo from when my bumper was off c/o crash so all not lined up correctly but is now just dead from a cabling point of view:

Ta people
Si