Hood won't stay closed!!
 

Hood opens fine, but the hood will not stay closed. For some reason the hood will "latch" but the minute I go over a bump it comes loose. What do y'all think. Do I need a new hood latch or should I go with new hood latch cables or both? The X in question is a 2000 4.4i Sport with 110,000 miles.

The latch probably seized with cold weather.

Get the car into a warm garage.
Get engine degreaser and spray the both hood latches.
Wipe off excess runoff.
Then lubricate with silicone spray. Teflon spray is OK too.

Then lube the hood cables, both inside the cabin and in the engine compartment.

I tried that to no avail. Thanks for the reply though.

Adjust the hood stops or the latches themselves, the spring loaded mechanisms on the sides of the hood latch can be adjusted. If too tight they won't stay closed.

Mine were rusted this year and I thought it would be a simple R&R but I ended up needing an hour to fumble with the adjustability. That reminds me I need to lubricate the seals on the hood and the latches for winter.

Thanks for the replies everybody. I'll revisit the X this weekend.

Did you take the X to the dealer for the 100,000 miles service?

If not bring it in so that they can spray lubricant on the latch so that it moves freely.

No I haven't taken it to the dealer. I am going to lubricate the chit out of the hood components though(springs, cables, etc).:wow::wow::thumbup:

:thumbup:

Also look for accident damage if you just got the car.

No accident damage. I've owned it for years. FWIW the X had a clean carfax.:D

worthless

change your atf. NOT at a dealer, unless your brother owns one.

;)

FIXED!!!! I adjusted the springs on the sides of hood latch. Thanks again.:thumbup:

Awesome man glad to hear it helped!

My hood problem is back on my 2000 4.4! I bought all 3 hood cables to replace, so I am hoping this will fix the problem once and for all.

Wish me luck.

It is not the latch?

make sure the hood release lever in the footwell is pushed all the way back in to the closed position, Ive had Mercedes' that had the same issue, the hood wouldnt latch, it was the opening lever that was in the open position, not letting the cable retract and allow the hood to close and latch.

I replaced the hood latch cables, old cables were stretched out. Problem solved!!

What was the process for that and how long did it take you?
Mine will not lock down. The catch still keeps it from popping open but the release stays popped out and no amount of lubing the stuff bolted to the hood helps. It sounds like I have your problem.

Sorry to jump on post but this is my exact issue n fix, when i push the hood release lever back to closed position the hood can be shut fine , or else no go and hood bounces when you try to close it, what is annoying from what i recall seems to have always been like this...cant be normal eh? Should the release lever in the footwell reseat to its position prior to having been pulled?

Should return to original position.


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I would lay money that your cable from the release lever to the first latch(LH) is on it's way to seizing up.If it works when you push the lever back in then there's a good chance that you could get away with lubing it.The wife's has been like that for a bit.I'm just going to go ahead and change out the cable when the weather gets better.

Sorry for the lack of update, but I didn't get to the cable replacement last weekend due to some "issues" over the weekend that I'm sure made the news there and made getting off compound inadvisable.

Will try for this weekend.

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