Hood Won't Open

I have been able to open the hood without issue since I have owned the car. The other day I wanted to recharge the A/C and pulling the hood release was not accompanied by the pop sound on the front latch. The hood worked earlier that day.

From the inside all felt normal. There was resistance and I could feel with my hand that the cable was being pulled behind the lever. I looked for similar issues online and everyone seemed to have a stretched or broken cable. The removal of the latch looked like it would be painful I didn't want to remove any bumper covers or belly pans. I could only get to two of the three 10mm bolts holding the latch through the grill.

I found a youtube video about releasing the latch by activating the lever moved by the cable using a long wooden dowel/skewer, but that seemed difficult to do. There was some sheet metal on the latch in the way and i bent that down. still no lock. Somewhere along the way with some prodding the hood moved open.

Turns out my issue was a broken large spring that opens the latch after the cable releases it. The cable was working and it unlocked the latch, but without that spring the latch didn't move open. The new way to open the hood, until I replace the spring or entire latch, is to pull gently on the hood while someone holds the hood release handle under the dash open. A gentle pull on the hood releases the latch as long as the cable is activated and has unlocked it.

 

That's right. and for all those people that leave a perfectly working hood latch alone, it can break at any time.... and in my case it was really easy to open, but I didn't see that advice anywhere. Should probably also add the gas lock hinge to the long list of lube points. I see so many of those failing in the Toyota lineup.