I tried the "hopping on the hood" thing while my girlfriend pulled the release and it worked. I'm assuming the extreme cold is the culprit to the release sticking. Thanks for the idea!!!

 

Soak both latches with PB Blaster as it will penetrate. Might want to do it one day and then again the next or one later. After that I would also apply a white lithium to it. That stuff is great for hinges and latches as it sprays on but sticks. Make sure you hit that middle safety latch. Only thing worse than not being able to get the hood open on a dead car is not being able to get into it in the first place

If you've ever had a door freeze shut . . . you know.
What works great is to get a tube of dielectric grease and smear the rubber seal with it. I've tried silicone spray and wasn't impressed with it at all.
Best to get a 3oz tube at an auto parts store, might need to have them order if. You need that much and it's cheaper than buying a number of the little tubes.

 

I have the same problem with my 98 S70. Will this procedure work for it as well?

 

I found a plastic moulding behind my marker light that obscures the hole. Looks like I have to try and remove the headlight too.

 

I need to try to figure out how to get it off with a broken lens now... wish me luck!

 

I went in underneath the car in the end. There's a lever that you can feel on the drivers side latch If you get under the car (UK CAR), from memory I think you push this towards the wing (I put a tie wrap around he lever and had it coming out of the indicator until I got the cable fixed as this was the harder latch to undo). I put my hand up in front of the battery on the other side and felt around for the cable that goes across the front of the car and gave it a good pull downwards. Released the other catch.

I didn't have to smash any lights to get the lid open

 

anyone still active on this thread? ran into this problem with my 96 850 sedan glt. hood cable is snapped up in the engine bay, i have the parking light removed, i grinder out the piece of plastic to get to the plastic tab with a hole in it to see that its not there. hmmm. i see earlier in the thread where someone had the same problem but the pictures box pin posted after that take me to iCloud... any help would be great

 

Pictures should still work. Photobucket was having some performance issues the past few days but are up again.

 

What you need (maybe) is a look at another 850 with the hood open. There are two cables; one goes to the driver's side latch, and the second cable connects the two latches to each other. The latches are independent apart from that cable across the front of the car making them move at the same time. You can release them one at a time, which makes it slightly easier. Depending on how much fiddling you need to do, that might be useful. The two latches are identical.

I got curious and pulled out my driver's side park light. Without any modification, I could see the lever through the hole behind the headlamp, but it's a long way back in there to where the latch is.

 

I am going to find a way to make an emergency back-up hood release based on this info!

 

How to replace pvc on volvo 850

 

You can't sling a dead cat without hitting tutorials for that online. Just google Volvo 850 pcv (pvc is poly vinyl chloride). Note however that the vapor returns to the suction differently on every car. You need to look really carefully at where the vacuum lines are going. Robert DIY is our favorite, always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEZzqyu2a6c

But there are many more.

 

Got one worse than that. I bought a volvo once. It was rough shape. As I was driving it home I stopped to eat lunch. I could not get out of the car. All door handles would not work, my wife was following me (TG) and she couldnt open it from the outside. She bought my lunch and and it thru the window. After driving 2 hours I got home and tried to climb out the window. But couldnt because of my back spasms. After about 30 minutes wife was able to get one of the doors open.
The crazy deal was all the doors needed was some lube. Havent touched them since. Moral of the story lube all hinges and latches every now and then.

 

 

I came to this thread becasue my Volvo hood was stuck. After further investigation it turned out the cable had come loose behind the latch.

If you are having a hard time, I would recommend you look at this guide first on how to open Volvo hood.