Hey guys ChrisFix here and today
I'm going to show you how to replace your hood release cable in your car or truck
And there's a good chance that if you're replacing the hood release cable
[you're] not going to be able to get your hood open just by pulling the hood release so I'm also going to show you how
You can pop your hood when the cable isn't working in this case
We have a Jaguar x-type and when I pull the hood release the driver's side will unlatch
But the passenger side is stuck [so] [let] me show you how to easily open this hood and to do that
We have to understand how the hood release works
So I went to the junkyard and I got a hood release to show you guys
So when you close [your] hood you slam the hood
That clicks closed and now the hood is stuck closed then when you pull the hood release lever watch down here
It allows the hood to pop open, so you shut the hood and then you want to open it
You pull the release cable and it opens the hood
So it's a pretty simple Mechanism now on the Jaguar the hood release cable has failed
I'm guessing it popped off so right now our hood is stuck in the closed position like that
So we can't get it open so what we're going to do is we're going [at] [a] pry bar
We're going to stick it from underneath up into here
And then pull it so it snaps open just like that so our hood latch is located right about here
So we need to find ourselves a pry bar [or] something long that we could stick from the bottom of the bumper all the way
Up, so let's give it a go and see if we get this popped open
So we're sliding underneath the car the radiators right here
this [is] [like] [a] radiator mount and what we're doing is we want to see where that hood release is and
You can see right at the edge of my finger
that's where the hood release cable fell off and then right there [is] where [our] hood release is so just get your pry bar and
Send it up there to the hood release and do your best to Aim and just slide that latch over
Just like that now that's how you open a hood that doesn't want to cooperate
[all] right, that is a relief
I'm going to pop the hood and let's go check out the hood cable see exactly why it's failing
so if we check out our hood release that clicks in we know that works and
This seems to be working fine and the reason why our cable is not working and not unlatching the hood is
Because it's all rusted and it's kinked and this is just not moving at all so in order to get this to [work] again
We're going to replace it
It's inexpensive to do it's not as hard as you would think I'm going to show you
right now the first thing we have to do is remove the hood cable from the latches and
Well this [sides] been done already for [us], but we still have to do this down here
And just so you understand how this comes off
I have this hood latch here, and all you have to do is you have to pop this downwards, so the hood latches
It's just like this and just going to press down
Same with this
Just pulls right down and the same with this
That pulls right down. They all just slide right into these so it's pretty simple
So I have my camera set up right over here. So you can see exactly what I'm going to be doing
I'm gonna be using a screwdriver. Just getting in here and push down on the cable until it pops out of [the] latch
Good
now we can go and grab our hood cables start taking it out and
It kind of sneaks behind stuff back here, so you're just gonna have [to] pull it through [oh]
Yeah, look at that. No wonder this wasn't working. This is all rusted and the plastics coming off
And just follow this to see where it goes and start pulling it through you can see it's sneaking underneath the wiring harness here
So I'm going [to] go over here. Where does it go? It goes right back here and
Again, just pull it through until [you] get the cable free
[alright], so we got everything removed that we can remove in the engine bay, so now we have to go into the car and
We have to go down to this hood lever here, and we're gonna have to remove the plastic trim and stuff
That's around this and then we'll remove the cable
Which is connected to this hood release lever?
Now using one of these panel clip pliers
Helps pop out all the panel clip so you don't break them and so you don't break your plastic trim so just sneak the pliers
right underneath and pop it open
And then we can remove [that] panel
So now if you remove this weather stripping just a little bit you [can] see there's two clips that are holding this in and that
pops right out
Now with our plastic piece removed we have easy access to this lever, and then there's a bolt there
And then there's a bolt right up here, and you can see how this works the cable fits in right there
And when you pull the latch it pulls the cable to pop the hood
And this is nice and easy to remove so let's get the bolts out. All you need is an eight millimeter socket
That's one so the bottom ones out and now we go up here
Good [and] then removing the cable from the actual hood latch is pretty simple and then you get your flat [head] screwdriver
And it'll help you pry that out beautiful and then slide this around
So [that] the cable pops right out so now this next tip is going to help so much
This is [the] hardest part of this whole job you need to install the [new] cable, so before you remove the old
cable go grab the new Cable
And when you grab your new cable you want to get the part that's going to go into the engine compartment
So this part is going into the engine compartment
[you] don't want the same part that's hanging out here because what we're going to do is we're going to tape these together and we're
Going to pull them through so you don't have to actually manually go in there and try to push this all the way through
Especially with all the wires and everything in the way
So again make sure that you have the right side this is going into the engine compartment
This is what's going on to our hood latches
So now you can either zip tie or tape it or use a little bit of both
And I'm going to use a little bit of both just to make sure it doesn't come undone good
So that's not coming apart and make sure you cut this as close as possible
Because you don't want to have a big piece sticking out
We want to make this as tight and [streamline] as possible so to help prevent things from getting caught up
I'm going to just tape them to make them a little bit more streamlined, and it's just going to prevent snags basically all right
So this is all ready to get pulled through we have our old cable and connected to our old cable is our nice new
Cable, and this goes all the way over [here], and we're going to be pulling it through up to the grommet
so we'll just come up over here and
That grommet is right there a grommet is just a rubber plug that mounts into the firewall to [prevent] water from getting into the cabin
So all you have to do now is pull the cable and basically we're using this old hood, release cable as a snake
So we're pulling this and that's going to in turn pull on the new cable
And it's going to pull it all the way through it's going to make your life so much easier
and
Once the new cable starts getting pulled through be less rough with it because you don't want to damage the new cable
This is [the] old hood release cable right here, and this is our new hood, release cable
And now just carefully pull it through until [the] grommet meets the firewall
once the grommets at the firewall give the cable a firm tug and the grommet will move right through the firewall and
You can see the [whole] grommet pulled through which is fine
So now we just need to pull it back the other [way] just [a] little bit
So it seals the hole in the firewall [it] might also help if you use a screwdriver
Just in case your grommet isn't going all the way in just
[like] that now that the grommets in place in the firewall let's disconnect
The old cable from the new cable because we're done using that old cable and using the old cable worked great be careful
You don't want to cut the new cable by mistake and now our zip ties free and with the new cable pulled all the way
Through let's reconnect the hood release latch in the interior. So now grab your hood latch. It's going to be sitting like that
We want to get our hood cable and just pop [that] in there. Just like that and
Then once that ball is in that socket there
We could go and press this in just like before we took it out. Now. We put it in good now
Let's bolt this up into place. So our screws. Go here and here and we'll just hand tighten [at] the start
Now we'll just snug them up good
And good beautiful
Now all we have to do is get our plastic trim pieces. They snap right in
and
Then we have to move that weather stripping back in place. So now we have our last plastic trim to Pop in
And we are done with the interior. Let's go hook up the hood latches in the engine compartment
We need to run the cable in the stock location
Along the fender and just make sure the cable isn't touching any sharp Edges or anything
That's hot as you run it to the hood latches
So now we're just going to route our cable to the factory location [and] it's going to go under here
And we're going right to our hood latch, so this piece this piece
And this piece are all going to connect to [our] latch and let's go do that now
First get the cable in place under the latch then pop in the black wire holder and make sure it clicks
then secure the white latch bushing and
then the other black wire holder and
With that quick test it stays in place [all] right so with that clipped in place now
We'll go and clip in the other side for the other hood release
Get the black wire holder in Place and then get the white bushing in place
All right, so now before we close the hood. We don't want to run into the same problem
We had before [I'm] just [going] to lock both of these
Now when we go to open the hood with the hood latch. We could see if both latches pop open and will it work
And it does awesome all right so both hood latches worked now the moment of truth
We could shut the hood and we can see if it pops open
All right, it looked like it works. Let's double check
Beautiful, and that is how you change out the hood release cable on a vehicle any vehicle
I mean this was specific to this Jaguar, but it works on pretty much any car. So hopefully the video is helpful
If it was remember to give it a thumbs up and also consider subscribing
up on the screen or a couple of videos to get to those you can click on the screen or find the links in the
Description below also in the description are the links to any tools and products I used in this video