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Solara 2001 hood latch does not work

3.5K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Kingdom934  
#1 ·
Hello, My Solara 2001 hood latch broke. The cable is visible and I tried to pull with pliers to no avail. I need to charge my battery and hood will not open. Is there a way to pop hood from the grill? Does a tool exist? What is my best option?
 
#2 ·
Are you pulling on the cable or the insulator (sleeve) that's over it? If you get a pair of vise grips on the actual cable you can yank the hood open but it can be a bear. This video may be of some help but it's for an earlier Camry but at least you'll get a better idea how the latch works.
 
#3 ·
Since the pliers didn't pull the cable to release the hood, try using a flat blade screwdriver to push on the hood release. It will be a challenge since the hood prop didn't pop the hood release. Did the cable break or can you re-attach it to the hood release lever.

When you do get it open, you will need to buy a replacement cable for the hood release.
 
#4 ·
The hood latch does not usually fail unless something pulled on it from the outside.

Double check if you are pulling the sleeve as mention above. You need to get someone or something to hold the hood latch cable by the plastic base where the wire comes out. While this is done, pull on the metal wire on the end.

If this doesn't work, you may have a bad cable or bacl lock. Not sure if you can remove the hood latch from underneath the bumper entirely so i could pry screw drivers to remove the lock. I had to do this on my Cressida when I snapped the hood cable and closed the hood on accident.
 
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