My 2015 XC70 T6 has the hood stuck closed. Initially the passenger side would not latch locked and hood ajar warning was lit. I found that by slamming the hood shut, it would latch and then the locking beep and flash would sound, and the ajar warning would go off. But slamming the hood did not work anymore. Pulling the inside hood release was not like before, did not seem attached to anything.

I got some white lithium grease and sprayed the latches and poked around with a stick. Then it latched and I could drive on the highway again--thought problem was resolved--but no, now I have real problem. Now hood won't open, pulling the hood release does nothing. This makes the car not driveable since I have the dreaded Low Battery Charge warning problem--getting a "Brace" loop-back adapter for the Sirius Radio did not fix the issue. I have to charge the battery every week to ten days--I need access to the engine compartment to charge my battery.

Took me two weeks to remove the grill, and I broke one tab of the grill. With the grill finally off, I can access the primary lock latch on each side, passenger side with the alarm sensor. But how or where do I stick a screw driver to manually unlatch the lock? If I remove the two 8 mm bolts to remove each lock, the lock would still be attached to the "D" hook of the hood if not unlatched--and since the hood is still closed, access to the back of the lock would be difficult, and the cable is still attached at the center.of the hood.

Is there a place on these locks to push to unlatch?

Say to pry with a screw driver?

Thanks for your advice and observations.

 

My ‘13 has this issue intermittently. It feels like the hood release has no resistance. I’ve PB blasted and lubricated the cable ends, which seems to help for a while.
The temporary fix I’ve come up with is to stuff a rag in the space between the hood and headlight as far as I can within reason, then pull the release. It’ll work till I fix it properly.

 

Thanks for the reply. After two weeks of trying off and on, I was finally able to remove the grill—broke one tab of the ten. Now I am ready to remove the locks and hopefully release the hood and see what the problem was, need new cable or what. I would remove the headlights, which is easy but not the bumper. Removal of the grill was very difficult for me, especially with the fear of breaking the tabs—and I still broke one, don’t know how I did it—stupid design—used a thin butter knife.

 

Hey, I am having the same issue. Did you get around to opening the driver side latch?

 

yes I did. Getting the grill off without breaking the tabs was the hard part—if I had to do it again, I would spend th $80 to get the Volvo grill removal tool—the butter knife works, but it cuts into the housing.

I bought an OEM replacement cable set and a passenger hood lock, figuring that could be bad since I was having alarm issues. I could not figure out how to remove the locks and how the lock and cables worked from the videos and pictures. But once I had the replacement Volvo lock in hand, it became very apparent.

It turned out that it was the driver’s side lock that was not releasing, but the cable was OK. I cleaned off the driver’s side lock and sprayed WD40, worked the lock/unlock mechanism and loosened it, so it worked. I remounted the locks and reattached the cable and it worked. The alarm issue was fixed by adjusting the hood stop rubber bumpers, one on each side.

I returned the unused new lock and could have returned the cable too, but I had to use one of the plastic cable attachment spacer pieces since I dropped one of them and could not find it.

Overall not bad, especially since I didn’t have to replace the cable. Getting the grille off without breaking the tabs was the most time consuming part. So now I have a grill with one broken tab. Thought of plastic welding it but decided to just leave it broken rather than damaging the grill tab further with a bad plastic weld repair.

 

Thank you for getting back to me @Backbutton I have a 2011 Volvo XC70 and the drive side latch is stuck closed. I was able to remove the front grill but not able to release the lock, I did put some WD40, and still nothing. Do you know if there is a way to release it?

 

You have to disconnect the cable from the lock and remove the lock. Once the lock is off of the car, then you can brake clean spray it and try to work the mechanism to see if it will free up. Clean it off, Spray WD40, and then work it. If you can get it to consistently lock and unlock, then you can reuse it.

The cable is merely pushed onto the bottom. You have to separate the bottom of the lock from the top--using a flat blade screw driver.

I had the benefit of buying a new lock and with the new lock in hand, I was able to see how the cable actually attached, and how it actually worked. You can buy a new driver's lock, and if you do not use it, then return it for 100% refund. If you cannot get the old lock to work, you will need the new lock anyway.

Once you have the new lock in your hand, you will understand how it all works.

I attach picture of one driver's side lock and one passenger side lock--with wire for alarm.

If you look at lock from topside up--where the (two) screw holes are, attaching the lock to the body of the car, there is a slot 3/4 of the way down the middle. Pry in that slot with a flat head screwdriver, and the bottom of the lock will detach. That's where the cable is attached. You can push in there to engage the release simulating the cable pull engaging the release.

The best thing to do is to get a returnable new Volvo lock. Once you have it in hand, you will understand better than any words or picture can explain.

 

Thank you, Backbutton for getting back to me, I am going to try this today and report back if I can get this thing open, wish me luck ; )