Hood latch Release Cable broke with latch locked: Problem Solved:

OK folks, it finally happened to me! When I pulled the cable to open the hood, I noticed immediately that the cable did not spring back. The hood did open. So like a dummy, I closed the hood and tried to open it again--bad decision-- of course it didn't. So now I had two problems: 1. the cable needed to be replaced and 2. More importantly, how the heck was I going to open the hood?

So, I went to a near by pick and pull that had several 2nd generation Prius models on the lot. A good thing as this would give me a chance to experiment in trying to open the hood. I found only one with the latch still attached, with 3 10mm bolts holding it on. So I took a ratchet with an extension and a 10mm socket and put the extension through between the opening of the top and lower front grill space and easily removed the top two bolts on the left and right. Because of the head of the bolt holding the horn on (perfectly placed in an annoying space), the space was too tight to get a 3/8 10 mm socket around the lower middle latch bolt. So I used a 1/4 10mm socket with a 1/4" extension with an adapter from 3/8 to 1/4 so I could use my 3/8 ratchet for better leverage and easily got that bolt removed. Then unplugged the latch sensor and used a wire cutter, cut the cable and got the latch off. But remember, this one did not have the hood on the car so it was wide open and easy to see.

Next, I went to Autozone and picked up a new Dorman hood release cable for $27 tax included. (They gave me a 20% discount). then headed back to my place to start the project. They sell these for less than $20 on ebay, but Dorman is a name brand, even though the part is made in China.

Project one: unlocking the hood latch:

1. I removed the three bolts holding the latch on exactly the way I did at the pick and pull. removing the 3 10mm bolts through the grill.

2. used a 2x4 to hold the hood up about 5 inches and then unplugged the latch sensor and boy that was not easy in the restricted space.

3. Then cut the hood release cable and opened the hood up with the latch locked to it.

4. Took a flat head screwdriver and pushed the latch release that normally would have the cable attached to it and opened the latch and removed it. And that accomplished getting the locked hood open without have to remove the bumper. And by the way, the ball end of the cable that broke apart was still lying in the latch.

Now what was not easy: to replace the cable.

1. Removed the left side front wheel.

2. Removed the fasteners holding the left side of the bumper so that I could pull it away from the car a bit (maybe 4 or 5 inches.

3. removed the left headlight to give me some space to work the cable through.

4. I removed the rear lower and rear fasteners and upper fasteners front left wheel well, so I could pull down the splash shield and see the path of the cable from the engine area and through the firewall on the driver side.

5. Then removed the cable from the pull latch inside the car.

6. Then I pulled the cable under the wheel well from the engine compartment. Then grabbed the cable under the dash and pulled the cable through the fire wall under the dash and off.

7. took the shell of the old cable and stuck it through the fire wall down under the dash

8. Took some electric tape and wrapped it around the ball end of the new cable and the shell of the old cable and pulled it through the fire wall into the fender area and removed the new cable away from the shell of the old one! Came through pretty easy.

9. Ran the cable through the hole leading to the engine compartment. and followed the path of the old cable to the latch area.

10. Attached the ball to the hood release lever and plugged the latch sensor back in.

11. installed the latch back, still using the grill space to attached the 3 10mm bolts.

12. then under the dash, installed the cable to the latch pull lever (was not easy! Should have removed the panel that the pull lever is attached to to give me more space. By not doing so, I had to become an contortion specialist--not easy for a 77 year old)

13. With the cable attached, I cleared everything so I could close the hood for a test run. Held my breath, closed the hood and then pulled the release cable and wow--it worked perfectly. Previously, I'd have to hold the hood up and drop it closed. Now I pushed the hood down to the release lever and just gave it an easy push and it locked down all the way easily.

14. Now had to reattach the fender liner, headlight assembly, the left side bumper. Put the wheel back on and torque the lug nuts.

15. Just one problem I have to solve to complete the job. Had a hard time reaching way up under the dash to try and push in the rubber fire wall seal where the cable comes through. Going to have to find someone to do this for me.

Meant to do some photos, but the lazy nice person I am didn't. apologize for that inconvenience. Put feel free to ask questions here if needed.

Oh, as this was a learning curve, with a lot of little stymies, took me a freaking 8 hours (3-11 pm). If I had to again, bet I could do it in less than 2 hours.

 

Yes, right in the area you have circled. The two top bolts are easy to get to. The bottom bolt is a little harder because of the bolt head holding the horn sticking out sideways. Need to use a 1/4 inch 10mm socket and 1/4" extension and you can get at it. Once you get those 3 bolts removed, you can lift the hood about 5 inches, but need something to hold the hood up so that you can unplug the sensor and cut the cable. That allows you to lift the hood all the way up with the latch still attached.

 

Sorry, my bad. But really getting the hood up was pretty straight forward.

 

I actually had a 2010 I bought used with almost 300,000 miles on it. Didn't like it as much as a 2nd Generation. And it was a freaking oil eater. Had a 2004 Prius that a deer ran into. Bought the 2010, and then my present 2008. If you look at your 2012 owner's manual, it says oil consumption is a quart every 600 miles. Same with the 2nd Generation Prius.

 

If the cable is broken, no reason not to cut it. No way to get at the latch if it is bolted on and the hood down. in my case, the ball at the end of the cable that normally pulls the latch open was so rusted it broke off the cable. with it broken off, the only thing holding the cable on was the plastic piece on the cable cover that attached to the latch. Open your hood and take a look at the latch and you will see you can't get at the latch release spring unless you are looking straight down at the latch, and you can't do that with the hood closed. To remove or install the latch release cable, you have to unbolt the latch to do so. So, if the cable ball broke off, just spend the time unbolting the latch, cut the cable and unplug the latch sensor. Really only about a 10 or 15 minute job if the sensor plug comes off easily. Your going to have to replace the cable anyways, so no reason trying to save it by not cutting.

 

When I read that the expected oil consumption was a quart every 600 miles, my first though was that Toyota did a crappy job with building the engine for it to be burning 1 quart every 600 miles and put that consumption rate in the owner manual to make burning that much oil seem normal and probably more importantly to cover their behind.

the 2010 I owned was used previously as a taxi and had 300,000 miles on it, so it didn't surprise me it was burning a lot of oil. I gave the car an oil change when I first bought it. I drove it about 1,000 miles and decided to check the oil, and found it down 2 qts already. That is when I checked the owner's manual which made it seem normal. So math genius I am, calculated that at that rate, if I went 7,500 miles after the oil change, using synthetic oil (like I always do), then I would be burning 15 freaking quarts between oil changes. totally unacceptable. That coupled with that I really didn't like the car as compared to my 2004, I decided to sell it. Got $2,100 for it and felt damn lucky I got that much. Now I have the 2008.