Hood Won't Latch

[vdeane]

My car now has this weird issue where the hood won't latch completely and I don't know how to fix it.  The hood release cable seems to be stuck open (the latch will move if I push it hard, but it just springs back to open, as if that is the default).  I can push the hood down where it's supposed to be, but since it's not latched, it just pops back up when driving.  I tried WD 40 but it doesn't work.  I have trips both tomorrow and Wednesday that involve driving at highway speeds, so I'm not sure what to do.  I'm paranoid the hood will fly open while driving and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do but tell a garage to look at it when I get the winter tires taken off next week.  Help?

[Pete from Boston]

Year/make/model?

[Jardine]

Doesn't sound exactly the same as my problem with my Safari van hood, but I'll throw out what I did anyhow:

It was very hard to open with the handle under the dash, to the point I figured it was just a matter of time till it wouldn't open at all. A friend suggested backing off the snubbers the hood closes against just a little.
and
Bingo!

Wow, did that help!

IIRC, NAPA (and probably other auto part stores also) has a fitting that will screw onto a cable release type assembly and then you can force some lube into the cable and that might help too.

[vdeane]

Year/make/model?

1997 Honda Accord LX

[corco]

In all likelyhood the problem is the cable not the latch- what happens if you yank the cable with a pair of pliers? Also chase the cable upstream to see if you can find a loose/missing screw

Worst case just thoroughly duct tape it until Monday

[bugo]

Slam the hood down really hard and see if it latches.  If it doesn't, you'll probably have to get a new latch.  Shouldn't cost too much to fix.

[vdeane]

what happens if you yank the cable with a pair of pliers?

No idea, I'm not the type of person who knows how to do much of anything under the hood so I wouldn't know how to find it.  Pretty much all I can do is spray WD40 on the latch and refill windshield washer fluid.

Even slamming the hood won't latch it, and this isn't the first time I've had this happen, either.  The previous two times it just fixed itself but that has yet to happen this time, even though it's been nearly a week.

Will duct tape leave a residue?  It normally does in my experience.  I'm also concerned that it might strip the paint (my car is pretty rusty).

How much of a problem am I likely to have?  Most of my driving Wednesday would be 55, but NY 49 between Utica and Rome is 65.  This is also the last chance I have to take this roadtrip - I don't trust my summer tires enough to travel in the Adirondacks, and I'm moving within a month and a half (to where, I have no idea).

[corco]

The cable should be connected to the latch- it might be underneath the ledge where the latch sticks out of- I'd just reach under there and give it a pull and see what happens.

I would certainly rather leave a little residue on my car with duct tape than risk the hood flying open- get a thing of Goo Gone or Sticker Lifter once you're done to get the residue off (or if you want to go cheap, any citrus based cleaner will do). If you leave it on there for a month, yeah, you'll probably risk paint damage. If it's just for a day or two in a sort of emergency situation you should be fine.

That's just me though.

[cu2010]

I had the same thing happen to me a few months back...the car was in for an oil change, and the hood wouldn't properly latch. The cable had rusted and snapped off the latch.

They just took a pair of pliers, pulled it a bit, and worked that back through the latch. Took some time but it worked. No charge.

[J N Winkler]

It does sound like the hood release cable is binding in its sleeve.  In addition to Corco's suggestion of pulling on the cable with pliers, I'd suggest trying to move the cable mounting point with your fingers--you shouldn't encounter anything but spring resistance.

I'd also second duct tape as a temporary fix, and wouldn't worry too much about the finish on a 17-year-old car which is kept outdoors, since clearcoat peeling and paint oxidization is just a matter of time under those conditions.  Hood latches are actually designed to prevent the hood from flying open if the hood release is accidentally pulled when the car is moving, but I wouldn't like to go over an unrepaired pothole at 65 MPH and discover the resulting jolt is just enough to trip the second catch and set the hood sailing.

[vdeane]

The car's currently in a garage because my apartment building has them available, though it won't be much longer (sadly garages are a rarity with apartments, so I have no idea what I'll do next winter as I have no experience with scraping a car off before work).  I also JUST washed it last week so am hesitant to do anything to ruin the look.  I won't be able to get it in to take the tires off until Friday at the earliest, either.

Trouble is, I can't see much in the hood.  The garage is quite dark and the lights don't help much.  Everything's in shadow.  I literally can't see anything that connects to the latch.

I wanted to call AAA, but since there's nowhere to park on the street my garage is on, I can't.

[J N Winkler]

The car's currently in a garage because my apartment building has them available, though it won't be much longer (sadly garages are a rarity with apartments, so I have no idea what I'll do next winter as I have no experience with scraping a car off before work).  I also JUST washed it last week so am hesitant to do anything to ruin the look.  I won't be able to get it in to take the tires off until Friday at the earliest, either.

Trouble is, I can't see much in the hood.  The garage is quite dark and the lights don't help much.  Everything's in shadow.  I literally can't see anything that connects to the latch.

A few thoughts:

*  Don't you have a small battery-operated LED flashlight or Coleman lantern you can use?  A droplight would be nice, but I wouldn't expect this amenity in rented accommodation.

*  A simple Google Images search on {1997 Honda Accord hood latch} turns up many photos and diagrams of the hood latch assembly, which might give you an idea of what to look for.  Interestingly, search autocomplete shows "1997 Honda accord hood latch problem" (and variants, like "hood won't close") as soon as you type in the first three words, which is an indication of how prevalent this problem is on this particular model.  (The hood latch seems to be for 1997 Accords what urethane odometer wheels are for mid-nineties Saturns.)

*  One of the major Honda Accord aficionados' forums has a thread on this very issue:

http://www.hondaaccordforum.com/forum/general-tech-help-7/accord-hood-latch-doesnt-lock-hood-26327/

Apparently one possible cause is a latch misalignment that is remedied by adjusting three screws, but I still think a binding cable is the more likely cause.  There may be other threads as well--a given model's Achilles-heel issues tend to come up on enthusiasts' forums dedicated to that particular model about as often as Clearview turns up on this forum.

*  If your area has coin-operated, do-it-yourself brushless car washes with high-pressure wands and spot-free rinse, I really wouldn't worry about ruining a fresh wash, since you can get the car looking clean within fifteen minutes of removing the duct tape, if you choose to go that route.

[DaBigE]

+1 On the cable jam. Same thing happened a couple months ago on my girlfriend's Cobalt. Unfortunately the stuck cable wasn't noticed until after someone had put a couple dents into the hood trying to force it to latch. Needle nose plier and some WD-40, and it was back working again.

Instead of using duct tape, what about a bungee cord? The only problem (not being familiar with any Hondas), is where to hook the other end to.

[agentsteel53]

Instead of using duct tape, what about a bungee cord? The only problem (not being familiar with any Hondas), is where to hook the other end to.

one end to the hood.  one end to the frame under the radiator grille.  that should pull it nice and taut, and the frame is designed to hold a winch for a tow truck, so a single bungee cord is definitely not gonna be an operating hazard.  you'll have a slightly unsightly bungee cord on the front of the car, but c'est la vie.

[vdeane]

So it seemed to fix itself when I tried it again this morning.  Possibly it might mean that it takes WD40 overnight to really affect a greasy spring that's so black with soot that the metal isn't visible.

Probably it's just because I jinxed myself.  Last night I decided to cancel the roadtrip I had planned and accordingly deleted it from my roadtrips text file and uploaded my CHM page updates.  Now that the hood's fixed, the trip is back on, but I'll have to do it from memory (not hard) and wait to update the CHM page with the new clinched routes.  As a result the .list file I sent will probably be dated before it's even processed.

I suppose now it's back to the never-ending debate about whether or not to include a measure of how well I've explored a county on my county tracking page.