Hood Latch Unstuck! Thank you.

[lespaul]

Just a thank you to this forum.

Over the weekend, I replaced my front hood shocks and the front latch which PO had broken. No more broomstick! However, I neglected to carefully line up the new latch and shut the hood.

To my frustration and dismay, it not open. It would only pop open about 1/2" and no further. I tried a lot of stuff for a long time with screw drivers, wooden rulers, jamming the hood back and forth . . . and was just about to get the hole saw out to come up from beneath, when common sense hit me. I realized this had to have happened to someone else. I did a search and found that this is not an uncommon problem and there were many suggestions on how to approach the problem before cutting into the underbelly.

With renewed confidence, I went back at it with the ruler and in 3 minutes --- it popped open. I cleaned and greased the latch and then properly line it up. It now works perfectly.

Thanks to all of you for a) sharing your experiences and b) saving me hours of continued frustration and a 3" hole in my car. This is a great resource!

Brad