91 Camry Hood Release Broken - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

fracend · 09-25-2009, 03:01 AM

Was just going to check my coolant and oil levels and the hood release does nothing when pulled. I tried pulling on the cable itself just incase but no dice.
Any suggestions on how to get the hood open?

Thanks.

TBayToyotaBoy · 09-25-2009, 10:13 AM

Unfortunately, you may end up having to break your grill to get at the latch assembly.

IF you can find a replacement grill for cheap (I mean no more than $20 or $30 Australian), you can break the grill and get a pair of needle-nose pliers in there to pull back on the cable right at the latch. There is a short section of cable right at the end that emerges from the plastic jacket before it hooks into the release lever. If you can get the pliers on that you can release the hood.

I'm surprised to hear this is happening to you...I live in the salt belt where winter makes everything rust to hell, and even I have never seen this happen. It's usually the plastic lever on the dash trim that has broken, causing the cable to fall out...

When you pull on the cable, is there a lot of slack? After you let go of the cable, does it retract back into the black plastic housing? It's dimly possible that you haven't pulled the cable far out enough to activate the release, which is mounted to a heavy spring...

--Tim

white90dx · 09-25-2009, 12:33 PM

Another possibility (besides just not pulling hard enough...) is that the latch has been released but the hood didn't pop up. Try prying up carefully to see if it comes up.

The hood on my first Camry would sometimes not pop up if the lever was pulled. It would, however, pop up on the freeway at 75mph+ if had pulled the lever previously... thank god for the safety latch! A little lubing of the mechanism fixed it...

-Charlie

lk3000 · 09-25-2009, 12:43 PM

My trick for releasing the hood was to gently tap on the hood so it would pop up. Definitely apply grease to the latch

TBayToyotaBoy · 09-25-2009, 07:48 PM

If the release has been pulled and the hood is simply not popping up, you can adjust the rubber stoppers at either side of the hood (over each of the headlight assemblies). Simply unscrew both of them a couple of turns and they should hold the hood up with enough tension that it will pop-up when released.

They look like this, look at the rubber grommet with the phillips screw through it: