weekendwarrior44

So last night I opened up the hood to check my oil level and when I was done I tried to push my hood down to close it and it wouldn't lock. It catches the hood and holds it from flying up but it won't lock when I push it down. Weird because I'm always gentle when closing my hood and just all of a sudden in won't lock shut. Today I took out the latch and cleaned the CRAP out of it since it was super dirty but no luck. The latch will lock if I push it down with a screw driver but if I try to close the hood it won't no matter what. Also tried pulling the hood release while closing and nothing either

dwb993

Mine does this, too. I have to release the hood 12-18" and let it fall down to close.

rossco

Check the part of hood latch where hood release cable hooks up to. That lever is probably stuck. Need to lube with wd40 or something and manually move lever till its moves freely. Lever not releasing.

mongomery1234

Perfect excuse to get the assembly and install some aerocatch pins

Chuck S

Clean and lubricate the latch. New one is cheap. $25 or so.

-- Chuck

weekendwarrior44

FML I know why it's not locking.... I was in the garage messing with the assembly and took my bumper off to get a better look at everything when I try to close the hood and I realized my radiator support is bent. Took my mom to help her do errands about a week ago and she was being a typical annoying mother so I ran over a yellow parking brick because I was distracted. I just noticed the yellow paint underneath the support and it does look a little out of alignment. I hadn't opened the hood until yesterday night so nothing seemed wrong until I opened the hood and then tried to close it again.

weekendwarrior44

Area 1 is where I hit the parking brick and area 2 just shows how far out of whack it is as that thing sticking out is supposed to go in that hole. How should I even go about trying to bend this crap back lol

meccjoo

Try adjusting the rubber stoppers.

haroot

Raditor mount being bent can cause hood latch to not close as well, because I just cleaned the entire damn thing scraped the soot of 117k miles and wd40 and still no go and double checked the release cable , I think you and I should Mig or Tig weld the radiator mount back in place that will help a lot

Slowcrash_101

Have you tried loosening the bolts holding the latch and adjusting it's position?