Help - hood stuck closed!

[rijco]

I just got the car back from my mechanic (major rebuild project) and drove it to the island where I live, and discovered that the hood will not open. The cam lock handle is working, but the wire goes slack when half way open and the hood stays solidly locked closed.

This is a problem because the brand new alternator apparently isn't charging, so I ran the battery down using the lights last night and now I have a dead battery and no way to get under the hood!

I suspect the last minute hood adjustments my mechanic did as I was picking up the car may have created the problem as I've never had this happen before.

Any suggestions as to how to get the hood open so I can charge the battery and get this car home?

[4x2]

Have you tried just opening it ?

My 02 has the same problem (hood adjusted a bit tight) and while the lever stops halfway it will open if you just try to open the hood.

[rijco]

I've been pulling and banging from various locations for two days without any luck, until just an hour ago when it finally released! Anyone have any advise as to why this happened and how to avoid it in the future? I'm not locking the hood again until I can figure out how to make whatever adjustments are required.

[02hobiedave]

Mine has done that before when i leaned on the hood lock mechanisim and the wire slipped off the cam. The hood closed fine and even locked but when i went to reopen it no go. So after messing with the hood and looking up under it i saw that the cable was off. Took the tension off and put it back on the cam. thats my 02

dave

[hanksjim1]

What island are you on?...I am on Orcas.

[TobyB]

Lube your locking rod...

heh

Also make sure the rollers on the ends turn freely..

t

[esty]

that happened to me when i was installing my hood and adjusting it..

take the grills out and loosen the 13mm bolts that hold the hinges to the front of the car...that will allow the hood to move forward off of the latch

[MikeD]

Try pushing down on the top of the hood next to the windshield. Mine sticks occasionally and with a little push down on either the left or right side on the windshield end of the hood it should open.

[Paul7002]

Esty's got the right idea. go in thru the grill and loosen the hood hinge

[bills2002]

Rijco,

You said the mech did some last min adj to the hood. Do you kno what he adjusted? If the latch receivers ( those angled metal tabs on the hood that the rollers snug onto) are adjusted too tight the latch bar will bind. This happened to me and I had to push down on the hood over that location to allow the latch to disengage. You probably tried that but it is a little counter intuitive to push down for release...your instinct is to pull up.

Like MikeD said earlier;-)

[rijco]

Actually, pushing down with constant pressure over the latch locations did the trick. Now I'll take the collective advice and lube, adjust, check rollers, etc. Thanks everyone for pitching in with suggestions.

[rijco]

hanksjim1, I'm on Bainbridge Island