And while I'm at at it - I cannot pop the hood
 

One more question: for some reason this winter I CANNOT get the hood open. I'm going to need to change the oil soon so I'll have to figure this out. I know this sounds like a really dumb problem, but not matter how I jiggle the little plastic release handle I just can't get it to pop. The last time I got it open was int he Fall. Anyone ever have this problem? I live in Maine and it's sub freezing almost all the time, so I'm wondering if the cold might have something to do with it.

Mine also stick and it seems to be worse in cold weather as well. Can be very frustrating if you want to do something under the hood.

I would have one person pull the handle and another bump the hood with their fist over the places where the hood latches are. You can try adjusting the hood pins, but it could be that the cable is just stretched and in the cold weather they are too tight and they don't want to release.

last time I had a sticky hood a bit of lube on the latches was the main thing it needed, but one time, I had to unhook the cable under teh dash and pull it with some vicegrips, thats when I decided I had to lube the latches and tighten up the cables a bit, heh. getting both latches adjusted right takes a bit of tinkering.