I know this has happend to one or two people on here. I went to open my hood tonight because i had to jump the car to take it to get a new batterybecause the car won't start. Release didn't work. Now my car is stuck in the garage for good. Unless there is some magical way to get that hood to come up. I can't think if anything. The hood didn't even make that springy pop noise it always does when you release it. Just a sort of click and not there's no tension on the cable. How do i get the hood up? Can't pull it up, i tried that and the hood release is limp. I can't think of anything short of taking off the whole bumper to get to the mechanism.

 

I have found that if I jack my car up on one side or the other without being extremely careful to keep the jackstands even that the hood will do this exact same thing......maybe you can try to free it up by jacking up one side, and lower it and then jack the other side and lower til you find the sweet spot. Its at least worth a try - sure beats using ANY object to try prying it open.



Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

 

that just happened to me two nights ago! Hopefully you don't have a Front Mount IC because then I can't help you. If you feel around on the inside and under the front bumper, you may be able to place your fingers on the line connecting the hood/front bumper, then you're close. You should feel two pieces of vertical metal, both with notches on the bottom of them. They will be behind some supports. You may also feel some springs on them. Get a screwdriver or a opened end socket and put it on the piece of metal that is towards the driver's side(or when you're facing the front bumper, your right side) and push it to the right(or maybe it's your left). That's how I got it open. When I got my hood opened up, I looked at the pull cable, and the tip that connects to the hood latch was broken, so I'll have to order a new one. Hope I could be of some help

 

I did jack up one side of the car yesterday but the hood has popped since then. I think this may be worth trying. When it hits the "sweet spot" does it just pop? Or does the mechanism retension the cable or what? What do i expect to hear or see? How do i know when i've gotten it? Thanks

 

Seriously, just get a plain old brown rubber plunger, lightly wet the hood down, pop the plunger on and get a good vacuum on it, have a friend do the hood release whilst you pull.......it will come up every time!
Then figure out what your problem with the release is.

 

I would recommend that you try popping it (the normal way) in different positions.....it usually doesn't just pop by itself. Jack it up a little each way and see if it will pop. You shouldn't have to do any serious raising to get this to work. I know your fear.....when this happened to me, I was in the middle of an oil change.


Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

 

When you had the problem, was the cable limp already? If you get the sweet spot does it tighten up to normal again? Mine has no tension on the cable.

 

I can't find this. Where in relation to different parts of the car is the opening for the screwdriver? Do you reach it by going through the hole in the bumper or from underneath the car completely? Please explain. I can't find any space to get up through there.

 

Yes, mine felt exactly the same way. I don't know how the mechanism works, but the latch somehow jams, keeping the cable from re-tensioning. Just thank the rotary gods that this happened to you on a third gen and not on a first! I think more than one person can back me up on this one! (hood opens from the back)



Jon
'85 GSL-SE
'93 Touring

 

Problem is the hood release doesn't do anyhting. There is no tension on it. I know the problem you speak of when it pops but doesn't actually raise. This is different. I think i may have snapped the cable.

 

Where exactly does the cable to the hood latch run? Near the battery tray? I think I may have knocked it out of whack when i had my battery out this week. I put it back in today on top of what i thought was a wire and didn't think much of it. I believe this black line may have been the hood latch cable and gotten messed up when i went to put the battery back in. I don't know what i can do now. Any ideas? I can't remove anything from under the car to get at the latch can i? HOw about getting to the cable by taking off the wheel well liners? I have no idea what i am going to do unless i can get to that latch from the bottom somehow. (and i will because i'm not paying 350 bucks for the mazda dealer to mess up my hood and fix the latch.

 

I got to it from the front of the car, with the car on the ground(not jacked up). I just reached in there and felt around for it. It might be the one on the left for you though since I've got a right hand driver car, but you kind of have to invision what you're feeling, and push it.

 

Does anyone have a good picture of the latch mechanism? It would be good to have a reference for what i am feeling around for. Also a pic of the cable would be nice.

 

jspecracer7, you have a pm.

 

Sounds like your cable broke. Happened to me. Here's what to do:

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.

 

I had actually done a search and tried that. I can't even stick one mousepad in there, let alone two. I tried it with thinner rubber too and all i did was mess up my bumper a tiny bit. I don't have enough of a crack there. The hood essentially butts up against the bumper.

 

I got it! I will write how i did it for reference purposes. The cable was clamped under the battery tray when i put that back in. I took the front drivers side wheel off and removed the wheel well liner. You can see the battery from here. The cable runs right through there. Since the cable was pinched in there I just had to pull on the black outer part of the cable and the inside part moved as well releasing the hood. It on;y worked because the cable was pinched. If that isn't your problem then it might not work. Thanks for all the help. So many solutions to such a desperate and frustrating problem and i still had to go with a different one.

 

Yep, I, too, pinched the hood-release cable, and went in by removing the LEFT wheel and LEFT fender liner. I had to loosen the bolt that holds the battery tray, which allowed me to release the hood.

I also inserted a tie-wrap at the "ball" catch and it was long enough to reach to the mouth of the front bumper just in my cable fails.

Thanks everyone!

:-) neil