Can't open hood

Shouldn't need a screwdriver. You first used the lever inside the cabin to pop it?

- D

 

If you're able to raise the front end you might be able to reach the latch from underneath. Sounds like the regular release lever cable is broken.

 

I bet the mice nesting in your air cleaner are holding the hood down just to mess with you.

When you say you can move the latch that holds the hood down do you mean a little bit of movement or enough to unlatch the hood?

 

Some WD40 or chain lube - whatever's handy - aimed at the latch mechanism might free it up. If it's the cable that's frozen, that might be a little more difficult to get at.

If it is the mice, like F8L suggests, then the smell of the WD might get rid of them.

 

I don't know, man. WD40 smells kinda good.

 

In that case don't open the hood!

Have you tried working the hood release while someone else manipulates the release from within the car?

 

The cable can slip off the release lever under the dash pretty easily. But if you can find that end of the cable, you ought to be able to pull it with pliers to get that initial release.

 

Don't bother listening to the peeps telling you to pull the hood latch cable, there insulated and designed not to release when you do that. More specifically the cable is encased in hardened rubberized plastic that slips into a u-joint at the latch point. the cable itself continues at this u-joint to the release spring which is totally encased in a metal box. So even if you tug and tug on that cable it won't budge the release latch. Trust me I have an 04 prius that got tboned so i switched doors and let it sit too long so I had same problem.

 

So now to help you fix it... Start by jacking up the passenger side up pretty high, make sure to use blocks on your back tires. Next, number 10 metric wrench here or a phillips and undo the plastic panels underneath your car (about 6 screws on front and 2 behind) that should allow you to push the two front plastic panels back and towards the tires. Don't undo all the bolts, this should give you enough room to work. Now what I did was undo the bolts that keep the latch assembly down, there is only three bolts. If you look at the car dead on from the front you should see 1 on left, 1 on right and 1 more on lower middle. I was able to get the left one out through the front grill with an extended #10 metric socket, but the other two I undid by going underneath in front of radiator. Since your down there you should have access towards that pulley cable, go ahead and give it a nice long pull with your right or left hand and see exactly what im talking about, remember to pull towards drivers side to release. Didn't work right, well instead pull it towards the passenger side, you should get about 6 inches of slack, work at it a bit, this shouldn't require that much force. Now with the slack given and bolts removed get up and pull hood up, should come up to the plastic cover, work that latch through the cover if you can if not just pull up with the cover so you can get your hands in. I got my hood up about 5 to 7 inches. Now, WATCH YOUR EYES, simply feel in the back for that release cable, trace it from the black plastic cover, you should feel the u-joint, then you'll start feeling METAL cable, keep going until you feel the spring. Work your fingers at this point and you should release the latch, it will pop and probably scare you. Now hit the lever in the front of the latch assembly to completely free the hood. Now put the latch back in place, hand start the two screws, then you can tighten them from the front of the car, that lower third one you will probably have to go back under to get that one going. Then redo the plastic covers and lower the car. All done.

 

WOW!

Now that's what I call a helpful post.

Great job!

 

I followed this lead and it worked! Was able to open a hood when the cable had broken on my 2009 Prius. Took a couple of hours for me, but have it working again. Thanks so much!

 

Today I used this advice to get my hood open and replace my broken cable. Allow me to offer some potential revisions on getting the hood open, and tips on how to replace the cable.

Before jacking up the car and messing around from below, attempt to get all three bolts out through the grill. I was able to do this with a long, thin, ratchet extension and never needed access from below.

Replacing the cable is a challenge in itself. The cable runs across the front then disappears under the fuse box, into the tire well, then through the firewall into the drivers compartment. Threading a new cable from scratch would be quite the challenge.

What I did was to pull the broken cable out of the old housing, and since mine broke at one end, I had a nearly full length cable to work with. I detached the old housing from the hood latch, then tied one end of the broken cable to the end of the housing at the latch end, wrapping the connection in electrical tape to minimize snagging, and pulled the old housing out from inside the car, trailing the old cable. It snagged once in the wheel well, but by reaching in above the drivers side front tire I was able to pull the plastic liner back just enough to get my fingers up there and guide the connection past the snag.

Then I used the same technique to tie off the old cable to the hood latch end of the new cable and housing and pull the new housing back through the old path to its new home. Once again it snagged in the hole going from the wheel well into the engine compartment. That snag was more persistent, and I ended up pulling that section out over the tire enough to rewrap it with tape in a more streamlined configuration that worked.

There is a soft rubber gasket on the cable housing where it comes through the firewall, and a hard plastic washer between that gasket and the end that attaches to the lever by the drivers knee, so the new cable must be threaded from drivers compartment to hood latch, not the other direction. Hence the two part threading tactic. The soft rubber gasket can be worked loose with your fingers when removing old cable housing, and worked back on place with the new housing.

Be careful when you rebolt the latch that it lines up properly with the hood. There's intentional sloppiness from the oversized holes in the latch so adjustments can be made. I also found it prudent to test the newly mounted replacement cable before closing the hood for the first time. That required a lot of downward pressure with a screwdriver on the latching mechanism to mimic the hood loop closing the latch, but the peace of mind of confirming functionality was worth it.

Mine is a 2004 Prius, 206,000 miles, 53 mpg lifetime

Hope that helps someone!

 

I'm going to give this a shot.

 

I'll add my revisions for a 2007. My situation was that the ball at the hood latch end sheered off the cable. I used a go pro to try and see where the release was, but no luck - a metal box shrouds all view and doesn't seem possible to push the release without removing the 3 bolts holding the latch mechanism. Here's how I accomplished it.

I did NOT remove the bottom plastic splash shield nor jacked up the car. I removed the lower black plastic front grill so I could reach up with my hands. Starting on the left of center, using a 10mm crescent wrench I released the first bolt - it's easy to find, but too tight for me to use a socket (or an extension through the upper non removable grill, but you can see this bolt through the upper grill if you flash a light in. The second bold, almost as easy is just on the right side of center (almost dead center). Again, the same crescent wrench. The 3rd bolt, is the toughest. It's to the right of the middle bolt, higher than all 3 (maybe 1.5 inches higher), obstructed view and is inset into a gap in the mechanism so you can't use a crescent, but a short 10mm socket pushed into the gap in the mechanism. You have to feel with your fingers to find it. You can slide a finger in through the front upper grill to apply pressure on the back of your socket wrench once the bolt gets looser.

Once all 3 bolts are off, wiggle the hood upwards, also feel & wiggle from the bottom to loosen the latch from the car. Then using your fingers from behind (still up through the lower grill), feel for the cable, and where the wire (would) go to the spring, and use a finger to pull the hinge towards where the wire would pull. Not a lot of pressure is needed until you hear that familiar pop. Then you can reach in from the front as normal to left the lever to undo the secondary latch.

I have not installed a new cable yet, looks to be tricky. Almost wish I could fish a new wire in through the plastic sheath in place back to the drivers flap, or affix a new end to the existing wire. I'm cleaning up the latch mechanism with some WD40/PB blaster and adding some new grease - a small touch of oxidation but otherwise my latch is working fine - just the damn knob on the end.

 

nice write up, thank you!

 

I had the same issue and I just sprayed WD40 into the latch area and after two attempts, the hood latch let go and I was able to pop the hood. Save a lot of time.