Seriously, what's up with EF hoods refusing to pop? I've gone through 3 sets of hood latch cables and 2 sets of hood latches, all of which seem to work just great until a few days later when they refuse to pop the hood. I've resorted to leaving my hood unlatched because I'm sick of taking the bumper off to have to screw with the underside of the latch to pop the hood.

I'm guessing the spring could be "weak" - has anybody had success with getting a new OEM hood latch assembly?

*edit* - don't say "just get a buddy to press on the hood" or something, that's pointless because I want this to work like it should

 

you have to have some type of adjustment problem or front end damage or some ish to cause your problem. My crash free 88 has original latch, cable, everything never been adjusted, lubed, any of that and it works great, exactly like it should. Did you try repositioning the latch at all?

 

you may have the latch mechanism set to deep.lube it and unscrew it a couple turns.

 

I think my car was wrecked previously on the driver's side by the original owner but the front end is all straight. My best friend has a bone-stock near mint 91 Si hatch and his has the exact same problem.

I also did a search here about hood latch problems and came up with a bunch of threads but everybody was talking about the cable being stretched. I understand a stretched cable will cause the hood not to open, but I think the hood latch mechanism itself is faulty somehow.

I've also tried adjusting the depth of the latch mechanism with limited success.

I understand the new latch mechanism comes with a new cable

 

if you grab the cable with vise grips at the release lever and pull your nuts off, does it release then? Maybe somehow cables are just stretching quickly, but that doesnt seem logical as you said you have tried more than one. Hmmm?

 

That is strange, I would think it has to be a alignment issues.


Gator88 love the sig

 

mines the same way but all mine needs is someone pushing down on the hood as i pull the lever.

 

Well mine had the same problem but all it was is that it has a little plastic next to the latch that holds the cable mine broke so I put a zip tie to hold it in place check that out

 

loosen up the bolts for both sides of the latch, unscrew the catch on the hood a few turns, and close the hood to make sure it's all aligned. tighten up the bolts and adjust the hood pin/catch/whatever.
previous owner put hood pins on my car for no good reason. i adjusted the hood and filled in the holes...it works perfectly everytime.

 

Don't forget the lube. I had mine all adjusted perfectly but it was still sticky, I ended up lubing the crap out of it and after about a week of randomly popping the hood it finally works the way it should.