850 Hood latch cable broken - how can I get the hood open??
 

Hi...my hood latch cable broke when I pulled on the handle. Tried opening the compartment to find the broken part of the cable to pull with pliers but it's too far in. (The cable part is still sttached to the handle so it broke off up front somewhere) Can't get the hood to BUDGE no matter what. Does anyone know how I can get the hood open? Need to check my tranny fluid ASAP. Thanks!!

95 850 Turbo Wagon

They are a nightmare to get open when they break.
Did one side unlatch?

Unfortunately no...nothing is unlatched...it'c closed SOLID...=( Is there any hope?

There is always hope but it is always a major PITA.

If you can and it seems possible depending on how much came out with the handle. Can you cut the outer part back under the dash close to the firewall to get to the center part?

Here are instructions for opening the hood without a cable

1. You will have to remove your marker light...maybe you can even do this without removing it. Its spring loaded, you might be able to pull it out far enough to do this.

2. Take a look at the picture with the marker removed. See the hole in the well that makes its way into the engine compartment. Note# The radiator support will be covering this area and will need to have a hole opened in it to have visibility. See post# 16

3. Next picture is zoomed in...see the little tab with the hole in it? Thats the release. Take a hanger and make a bend in it to grab that tab and pull...that should do it.

yup, thats the best way of going about it... good luck man.

do the driver side first because that releases the passenger side.

STICKY !!!
I vote sticky, this is not only useful, but a valuable safety tip.

Ditto Great tip

Basically make it on the top of the forum no matter what.

Wow, I would feel honored

Done!!!!!

Hey you guys, we have the same problem with a '94 850 automatic sedan- the front hood latch fell inside the car. However, we took the marker lights out and don't see anything like the tab shown in the pics posted by Boxpin. Instead, we see this...

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100024

Do we need to remove the headlights too? This doesn't seem possible without damaging them, as the marker lights were both damaged during their removal...

Help up get our hood open! Thanks.

Okay, let me try to post those pics again...

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100024

The link takes me to a Mobile.me login...no pic.

Sorry, here they are in my public folder...

http://public.me.com/thedouglas

Okay, gotcha. Makes sense now. Your looking at the radiator support. Its made of a fiberglass compound. You have two options here. First, pull the lower trim off below the headlight. Then size up the angle you need to access and pop a hole in the radiator support to gain access to the path.

Option two, and I dont know if this will work, remove the top and bottom radiator support bolts and see if you can pull out the support far enough to access the holes. I doubt this will work but worth a try.

If you can and it seems possible depending on how much came out with the handle. Can you cut the outer part back under the dash close to the firewall to get to the center part?

hood cable
 

I have recently noticed my hood release is not as smooth as usual, is there a precaution to take(lub) to keep this from breaking?

What if you have installed projector headlights with integral turn signals.

How do you get to it from underneath the car?

And yeah, what can you do to make sure the cable never breaks?

Could you pre-install lengths of aircraft cable hanging down from that latch eyehole, so you can pull down from under the car? Or does it need to be moved sideways?

And what is this comment about the driver's side latch releasing the passenger side of the hood?

Excellent idea.