Broken Hood Release

[cpgoose]

Hey guys...I tried searching but couldn't find anything on this....

I have a '97 civic ex, and the stupid plastic release lever under the dash to open the hood snapped off. Luckily you can still grab the metal cable with a pair of pliers and tug on it. Problem is, tugging on it does nothing. You can hear the cable move a bit, but the hood isn't "popping" open. I tried looking from the front of the car, and I can see and move the part that you normally move with your hand to finally open the hood, but I can't get the part open before that. I was curious if anyone has any tricks? I was trying to find the helms manual online and can't find that either. I realize this is an odd question because it's practically asking how to break into a civic...but it's true Feel free to pm me if the info is "classified"

Thanks!

[Calesta]

To fix it:

You can try to tighten up the cable- but you have to have the hood open to do that. Just adjust the tension at the latch.

Go to a junkyard and spend $5 on a new release handle too.

Oh- you might want to check and make sure that all your hold-downs for the release cable are still in place. Sometimes that can cause your hood to not open even when you're yanking super hard on the cable.

To get in:

Civics usually have the hood release cable running through the passenger side wheel well (88-95 do, think 96-00 are the same). If all else fails, you can cut into the cable housing there and try to pull the cable.

[sjsotelo]

um in the 98 civics, the plastic releace lever is like "attached" to the cable, and from what i saw, you have to replace the whole cable inorder to get that plastic latch back. Mine is broken too, im just useing pliers for now. Also I downloaded the helms manual PDF off some site after a google search. its about 40mb and 1540 pages or something like that. Its good stuff... so try google search.

[simplegreen]

mines been broke for like 3 years

[Siege911]

lol mine's broken too... we should start a "CL Broken Hood Release Club"...

I just attached a wire with some screws, and bent it around and put a nice piece of rubber around it so it's "airgoenommic"

[simplegreen]

i just grab the stem like a man and yank lol

[cpgoose]

Yea, I was able to get the Helms, but I still can't figure it out. I think it wants you to remove the front bumper and one of the side panels.

Yes, I'm using a pair of pliers, but pulling on the cable is doing nothing....that's the problem.

I'm still trying to get in in the front (just under the emblem) to grab the wire or move one of the pieces to get it to "pop" open.

[sjsotelo]

to replace the wire i think u do have to take off the bunper and the driver side fender.... b/c it runs under the fender i think... but im guessing you will need to remove the bumper to fix the the box thats not letting it pop open. you could even go to a junkhard and buy that whole little release box for cheap....

[cpgoose]

Update:

Ok, so it turns out that there is actually a TSB for this issue. The fix is to replace the cable and the latch mechanism. I called a few Hondas to find out if they would cover it, and it turns out that it's not for my particular VIN (I'm off by like 1 digit). I thought maybe they would do some sort of "good faith" fix. Fat chance....they wanted between $150 and $250. Forget that. Over the weekend I had someone continually pull the cable while I shook the hood up and down and it eventually opened You can see that the cable is probably worn out, and the latch was very hard to move, so it probably needs to be greased up.

[sjsotelo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cpgoose @ Jan 31 2006, 12:54 PM) [snapback]99115[/snapback]</div>

Update:

Ok, so it turns out that there is actually a TSB for this issue. The fix is to replace the cable and the latch mechanism. I called a few Hondas to find out if they would cover it, and it turns out that it's not for my particular VIN (I'm off by like 1 digit). I thought maybe they would do some sort of "good faith" fix. Fat chance....they wanted between $150 and $250. Forget that. Over the weekend I had someone continually pull the cable while I shook the hood up and down and it eventually opened You can see that the cable is probably worn out, and the latch was very hard to move, so it probably needs to be greased up.
[/b]

What year for the cars or model was the TSB for? maybe i can get lucky!