Hi all,
I have a 1997 LeSabre Custom that I just finished replacing brake lines on, and now I can't get the hood open ! I've pulled the release under the dash, all the way, there's no sound or evidence of action. It used to be a bit tricky, such that I had to palm-push the hood down a bit sometimes, in order to get it to spring up, and then I could release the secondary catch and raise it. Now, I can't move it at all.
I went up behind the grill from underneath and removed the secondary catch handle (and unplugged the air bag crash sensor while I was in there), and couldn't get to anything useful, so then I took off the grill and still can't get to any part of the lock-down mechanism since it's mounted on the inside of the radiator side of the front headlights panel. I even ripped out the push-up spring, to see if that would remove enough tension to give me a way in, but it didn't help. I can't see any way to get any further, except maybe, if I remove the under-engine cover I might be able to reach up with a hooked tool to release it, if there's enough room between radiator and engine. Before I go ahead with this, does anyone have any other suggestions about how to get the hood up ?? I've looked at LOTS of Youtube videos, but they all assume that you can get at least partial access to the latch mechanism, which I can't.. Thanks much !

 

Well, I had to get brutal with my stuck hood.. I had just enough space to get a long Sawzall blade under the hood (sideways) and in contact with the catch mechanism. I sawed through about 65% of the catch, going from my left to right, and I think the blade caught on the catch mechanism and freed it. Lucky it did, I was on a downward cutting angle and it turns out I had partially sawed into the plastic radiator cover which is behind the catch. Any more cutting and I might have cut into the top of the radiator. What a pain in the *** ! I suppose I'll hunt down a new/used latch to replace it, but meanwhile I've rigged something that holds the hood down by spring tension and has the secondary safety to back it up. Here's a picture, after I was done:

 

This is something that's easily forgotten about, until the same thing happens to you and you can't get your hood open without a ton of hassle: If you look at my picture of the partially-cut catch, that rectangle hole on the right side of the catch is where a plastic gripper thing was supposed to still be in place, and it's job is to keep the end of the cable in position so that when the release is pulled the cable will pull the catch-release. On my car, due to old/weak plastic in the gripper thing it had fallen out of the hold, so the end of the cable sheath had no physical hold. If you have an older car with this type of catch, you might want to slip a cable tie sideways through your plastic gripper thing to prevent it from falling out too ! You don't want the hassle of the hood not opening ! Cheers


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