Driving along yest, doing about 50 on smooth pavement, and all the sudden I hear this thunk. I then notice my hood has popped, and only the emergency latch is holding it down - wth?

I've never heard of this before, I certainly didn't pull the hood release from inside the car, and I'm curious how such a thing could happen. The hood catch seems tensioned, and the hood closed properly after I opened it and looked at the latch. Is there anyway something could pop the latch by driving over it?

Bear in mind, I just spent the day before last on a four hour drive and have not touched the hood since before that.

 

OEM hood I assume?

I would lower the hood stops a 1/4 to 1/2 turn to make sure the latch is getting completely around the d loop... or raise the latch mechanism 1/4 inch (3, 10mm bolts).

 

Yes, OEM hood - good suggestion on lowering the stops, but its creepy that the hood popped.

 

That is weird. I would check the bolts that hold the latch. Maybe they worked loose enough for the latch to drop just a bit last time you closed it.

 

Ive had that open before on me too, only happened one time tho and not since then. I think ill lower the hood stops myself just to be safe

 

Also, as I believe the latch is cable activated, check to make sure the cable offers enough slack so to allow the hook to fully closes over the latch.

 

It is cable operated - I'm wondering if there's any way to hit the wire from under the car - thinking that something may have come up at it...

 

I suppose it's obvious, but if the safety latch were to fail that would be a Bad Thing. I once had that occur as I drove, top down, in a Mustang convertible at about 70mph. The hood came all the way over, smashing the windshield and knocking me unconscious for a fraction of a second. All this, in light-to-moderate traffic on an urban freeway. (Yes, I managed to pull over without further incident -- as if that weren't already enough of one.)

I never felt safe in that car again -- felt like it had tried to kill me. So I bought my S.

 

Gotta love Ford

Sorry to hear that, glad your okay. And now in an S too

 

interesting, perhaps this is a sign to upgrade