Hood problems - where to find this part?
 

So the hood fits fine when I close it however when I start driving, it seems as though the passenger side of the hood is bouncing up and down and I think because of this, it lifts the hood up a little (but not off the latch)

I did a search for what might cause the hood to not sit/raise up and people say that it is the rubber stoppers that the hood sits on. When I look at it, it seems as though this rubber stopper is lower than my drive side one which is hopefully why my passenger side of the hood is bouncing up and down.

Does anyone know where I can find this part and/or fix this?

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0131.jpg

Call ray crowe, theyre like 5 bucks

A little surprised that you can still get these bumpers. That would be the way to go if the stops have shrunk.
Sounds like you've already searched, but in case you didn't see it there is also this......
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...highlight=hood

Ok well I just replaced it and it seems to still come up so obviously it is not the bumpers.

Any other suggestions how to fix this? I'm guessing it has to do something with the latch but I don't know what I could do to fix it?

is it moving at speed? and if so at what speed are you noticing the movement? First off i would check the hood latch, then after that i would see if anything is in the way pushing the hood up at all any wires, bumpers, hoses anything of that sort, then go from there.

So if I begin driving with the hood all the way closed down, it'll "pop" up around 30-40mph. It seems as though the latch doesn't keep it down all the way. I can also see that only the passenger side of the hood seems to "flex" when it "pops up" The driver side doesn't flex when driving at speed and/or hitting bumps in the road. Also note that I've tried to lift up on the hood to see if it would unlatch enough as if I were to pop to hood to open the engine, but the latch keeps it down enough that you can't do that but it still doesn't sit flush after drive.

Anyway, the hood just sits like that for the rest of my drive until I park and just push it down.

Are you sure your hood is straight and not bent from a collision or something? That's VERY strange.

Or, could be something with the frame of the car on the front end isn't straight.

Dale

I'm guessing the latch isn't fully catching because of some IC to turbo piping. You may have to cust the frame work of the hood to fit the pipes or re-organize or dent the pipes to avoid coming in contact with the hood.

I think there's also some adj you can make with the hood latch. You may be able to slightly move it up down or L R.

YOu can also put some washer under the hinges to raise the hood some and put a washer under the hood stops to raise them a bit.

So the problem has gotten worse. I noticed when I got home last night that I can now fit my hand under and actually pop the hood latch.

Is there a way to adjust/change the latch fitting? I'm going to play around with it to hopefully get this fix as I don't want to drive the car without knowing it's safe to drive without the hood totally flying up.

this is a stock hood? pics of it with the hood closed?>

The latch can be moved up or down. IIRC, 2 or 3 10mm bolts. As I recall, it will not move left or right.
Check to see if you have enough to move the latch down, drawing the front of the hood down with it when closed. IMO, a properly fitting hood should latch completely when allowed to drop from about 12 inches above the latch.
If all else fails, take it to a trusted collision shop and have them adjust it so it latches properly.

This is a stock hood and the hood has no problem closing all the way, it's just when I start driving and once I get to say around 30-40mph speeds, the latch doesn't hold it down all the way and it pops up a little. At first it wasn't enough to get my hand under it and unlatch it, but a couple of nights ago when I got home after some spirited driving, it was higher than normal and I was able to just unlatch it without hitting the hood release lever to pop it up to fit my hand under.

Dude stop driving it until you get this fixed! Get a new latch from Ray just in case (I remember it not being to expensive).

I had similar a problem but not nearly as bad as yours. Both sides of my hood were wobbling at highway speeds. It ended up being the bodyshop not adjusting the hood properly. Rich fixed it up for me.

I just can't get mine to STOP SQUEAKING!!! aughalfjlaf!

I've put foam tape on those bumpers and tightened the latch. It works for about a week.

Ok so I finally got some time to adjust the hood latch and I still can't understand why this isn't working. I loosened the 3 10MM bolts and then adjusted the height of the latch multiple times. First I raised it all the way, then lowered it all the way, etc etc and still the left side of the hood sticks up which causes the hood to wobble and wind to get under it when I'm cruising to lift the hood a little. I looked to see if there was anything in the way of it in closing but couldn't see anything on the left hand side. Any suggestions?

The Latch

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0236.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0237.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0238.jpg

Left Side

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0249.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0250.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0251.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0252.jpg

Right Side

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0248.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0253.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0247.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0244.jpg

are you sure nothing is touching the underside.....

The only thing I could think of is my IC piping but it looks fine to me

here is the engine bay

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/SAM_0730.jpg

check under the hood for scuffs, if it is touching anywhere you should see a fain circle rubbed underneith.

the hood looks strangley tweaked on the one side, and usually thats what it is.

Ok so I checked to make sure anything/everything is out of the way when the hood closes and there is nothing in the way when I close it. The hood closes but it just doesn't stay down once I get driving at highway speeds. It's only the left side (looking at the front of the car) so I have no idea what it is. I put electrical tape on the piece of where it goes into the latch to sort of build up some "thickness" to see if it helps and it keeps the hood down and everything sits level but once I hit say 75-80mph, it starts to lift a little, again only on the left hand side.

Bump

if theres no other explanation, im going to have to go with the fact the hood is tweaked, and the wind catching it at speed is not making it any better.

you could try to bend it back, or get a used hood.....

Sooner or later I'm going to go with an aftermarket hood. I guess this is just going to advance the purchase of it

My hood actually started going up and down again as well. I think my hood is a little bent through from the poor adjustment a while back. I'll try bumpers and lowering the hood as well. I never had this problem before my hood was put back on improperly.

the striker is worn. take a look at it and you'll see an indentation where the striker latches onto the striker.

huh?

Corrected:

the striker is worn. take a look at it and you'll see an indentation where the striker meets the latch

sorry I was tired.

Google hood striker for images if you don't know what it is.

So is the striker the part where it should be keeping the hood from moving out to be caught by the actual latch?

So from this picture, you can see the foreground piece is about the same as the actual hood release latch. That's the hood striker you're talking about right?

How do I fix this or do I need to buy a brand new latch.

https://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e...4/IMAG0238.jpg

The striker is attached to the hood. It is that round tube thing that the latch (pictured above) latches onto. My cameras are all dead so I can't take a picture. Use Google to do an image search for hood striker and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The striker isn't the problem. To test this, I wrapped electrical tape around it to make it about 2" thicker. I literally had to push pretty hard to even get the hood to close all the way. Once it was closed I took it for a drive and although first it was solid, it ended up coming back up.

Are you missing any part of your under tray? Do you have any sort of fixed headlight and if so are you missing the stock rubber cowl piece for the headlights? Just trying to throw out ideas. =(

I actually don't have an undertray on the car right now as I haven't put it back on since I took out the engine. I do know that the hood still had the problem when the tray was on. No fixes on the headlights and I'm pretty sure it still has the cowl that you're speaking about.

I have the same problem, it seems to be warped a little on one side, but I don't think mine moves when driving

2" thicker?? A 2" thick striker wouldn't be able to fit the latch. :)

The fact that it stayed down for a while makes me think it was the problem. Electrical tape is pretty soft. It doesn't take much to get it to mold to the pressure of the latch digging into it.

Post a side pic of the striker.

Poor quality but you get it. You can see the electrical tape around it and how the latch cut into it after pushing the hood down and popping it up for pictures.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0267.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0266.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0265.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/IMAG0264.jpg

Just so it's eliminated....how is the fitment/gap between your right (passenger) door and right fender?

If you have any friends with a FD near you, it's only 4 bolts to R & R. See if one of them would help by allowing you to try their hood on your car. That might tell you where the issue lies.

The spacing between the fender and the hood on passenger and drivers side is equal throughout. That was the first thing I checked.

I was asking about the fender to door gap, but if your satisfied it's OK, so am I.

Haha I'll check the fender to door gap. I'm still trying to figure out this problem. Bump for any other suggestions/fixes!

bump

Anyone?

OK, try this.
 

First take of the electrical tape, since you can't see what is going on with it on there.

Check if your hood striker is bent to the left or right, this would cause lateral force on your latch when you lock it down. Did your hood come down and hit a solid object like a wrench left in place? Perhaps someone latched the hold down, then dropped your hood down on the hold down?
This stress could be manifesting itself by popping up one side of the hood and pushing down the other side.
The first thing I would try is remove the hold down. Really easy, only 3 bolts. Don't remove the cable, just let the unit hang out of the way. Now does the hood sit down evenly? If so then you have found the source of the problem. Next reattach the hold down, but loosen the 3 mounting bolts it. Make them loose enough that you can shift the hold down up and down and a little to either side. Then try to set the hood into place. The striker will push the hold down where it needs to be for no gap. If it sets nicely then now carefully raise the hood without shifting anything and tighten the hold down bolts. If it does not set nicely then you may need to enlarge the holes for the hold down to increase it's range of adjustment.

Alternatively if the hood is skewed on the rear attachment points it would have the same effect. This happens if someone aligns the fenders to the hood.
If this is the case you need to loosen the hinge hardware and shift the hood till it sits evenly. Then correct your fender gap on the fenders.