MakeYourSelf

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with replacing a hood hinge or what's involved in doing so? I'm replacing my hood but the hinge or hinges are bent in such a way that the latch doesn't securely latch so it seems I'll have to replace the hinges, anyone with a step-by-step on how to do this would be much appreciated

Thanks

i-VTEC_DOHC

its funny you ask this. my friend was backed into by his mom and he told me that u gotta take off the cowl, and the corner piece next to the cowl and the windshield wiper

vladd

should be pretty self-explanatory; see what's in the way of them coming out and remove that. it's not like you're removing the motor here.

2008fijibluesi

Maybe you have to? No one's told him exactly how to do it yet...

vladd

just glanced at my car real quick, looks like i-VTEC_DOHC was right; first remove the wiper blades and then the plastic cowl cover. the cowl is just held in by plastic clips. it's really that simple.

op: why isn't your hood closing properly? was the car wrecked? the latch could be damaged too, not just the hinges.

MakeYourSelf

The factory hood latches properly so it's not that I'm pretty sure. I found the process in the service manual from a friend, it is pretty simple as the second poster said. You just have to remove the cowl then some more trim near the hinges and remove two bolts, then attach new ones and reverse the process. The reason for the other hood's hatch not securing was the fact that it didn't sit far enough forward for the latch to catch, which replacing the hinges will fix.

MakeYourSelf

Update: Replaced the hinges and the CF hood lined up great.. but it still doesn't latch securely, just to the point where you can release it from under the front of the hood. Any suggestions? I tried moving the hinges back about a quarter inch thinking the latch wasn't catching at the right spot, but that did nothing. Has anyone had similar issues?

Note: the damaged factory hood latches just fine so I can't tell what's going wrong with the CF hood

vladd

you never said if the car was wrecked or not. was it? even if the latch is barely tweaked it'll give you problems. if the original hood was damaged along with the latch it could still close "properly", but once you get a straight hood on you start to see the difference. just get a new latch.

Zeusone

if its a cf hood then the problem is the cf hood. they are never made perfect.

MakeYourSelf

Well it was in a semi-wreck, the hinges were visibly damaged and not a proper angle when compared to new hinges. I've replaced them and raised the hood latch to where the hood now latches but it doesn't fully latch to where it can be released via the release in the car, so that will need some tweaking. I think another 1/4 inch raise of the latch once it's open will be a permanent fix.

vladd

i've never heard of people messing with the hood latch to get a cf hood to close properly. it's either a really shitty hood or the latch is messed up.

i-VTEC_DOHC

you have to take off the plastic cover where the latch is and adjust the height of the latch. and the latch also moves left and right. this is all you need to do for your hood to catch the latch properly. this happened to me with my seibon hood. and also theres rubber stoppers that u need to turn that go up and down. thats another possibility to why your hood wont close all the way. i would just lower them all the way down, and slowly go up and you repeatedly open and close the hood.

2008fijibluesi

Circle maker in paint not working correctly? lol

i-VTEC_DOHC

its actually the brush feature on photobucket.
its a lot faster to copy a pic to your account from another
rather than saving it to your comp and uploading it again.

washingtonludes

dude im having the same problem just like this guy