OK, I have a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT that has over 111 thousand miles on it and has seen too many harsh Pennsylvania winters, where they salt the crap out of the roads just so you can get to work.

Well, all that salt encourages a lot of rust. Guess what rusted? Yup, the steel cable that pulls the hood latch release. I went to open my hood tonight, so I could recharge the air conditioning system, and I got nothing. No click, no hood pop, nuthin.

So I get down under the dash and look close to be sure I'm pulling the right thing, and sure enough I am. So I give the cable a little tug and the whole thing slides right out. All the way up to the rusted tip which is frayed and broken.

Many four letter words were uttered at this point.

So I took it down to a friend's house who knows a lot more about working on high mileage cars (old beaters), and we messed with that damn thing for 2 hours and still couldn't get the hood open.

Anyone have any suggestions aside from a crow bar or plasma torch?

 

I'd say you just plain wore it out making all those fine tunes to all the mods

James

 

I've had luck before with real long screwdrivers.

I've also been known to have a couple of 10-speed bicycle spokes laying around. they work great because of their length and relative strength. You can bend a little hook onto one end and sometimes fish out the release mechanism by laying under the car.

Good luck....sometimes these things are a B**ch!

 

Yeah. I had to quit messing with it when the plasma cutter started looking real tempting!

 

See if you can find another Eclipse at a car lot and check it out, (maybe even take a few photos of how the cable is attached to the latch) and you might see another way to get yours open.
Good Luck

 

You got it Mike. That was what I was going to do on my lunch break tomorrow. Fortunately, this isn't on the Crossfire. There's a TON of these Eclipses on used lots.

 

Though it did cross my mind that if I cut a hole in the hood - dead center - I could cover it up with a nice hood ornament. Maybe a Jaguar... or the old Oldsmobile rocket!

 

Tom if you drove/treated your XF like you had your Eclipse we would be forced to take it from you! Your darn right about not being on the XF- thats crazy talk.
I had a mini van that I drove for a good long while with a coat hanger to open it, until the weather got better and it was remembered and repaired.

 

Have you tried accessing the remainder of the hood latch cable from underneath the car?

 

Yeah, the underneath access is very limited. The car's nose has an intake shroud to vent air up into the radiator. Unfortunately, it blocks access almost entirely across the bottom. We considered removing the whole bumper/fascia assembly, but we can't get to the top bolts that hold it on, as they are under the front lip of the hood.

Very frustrating!

 

Good luck.... I had the same thing happen on a lady friends car, Honda.
she had 4 guys try to get it open and they did beat up the hood and more.

I had to take front facia loose to get to it and it was still a chore.
But the moral to the story was that, I was well rewarded .....

 

Well, to make a long story even longer, I _FINALLY_ got my darn hood open.

I jacked it up and put it on stands so I had lots of room under it to work, and laid on the floor with the longest screwdriver I could find. I bent the crap out of the forward air dam, but it was flexible and snapped back into place. Alas, I still couldn't reach the mechanism. In fact it was schrouded from underneath - probably to prevent tampering! I did however get a good look at the mechanism.

So I cut up another hanger and went at it from the top - attempting to reach the catch. No success.

As I was fishing around in there, I discovered a small hole in the front of the latch mechanism, and I could see something through the hole. Then I realized that if I stuck a flathead screwdriver in the hole, I might be able to flip the catch.

Sure enough, that's what did it. A normal flathead screwdriver and a flashlight.

Now the hood release is fashionably replaced with the self same hanger, bent around the catch and accessible with a finger when the hood is closed. It's definitely a ghetto solution, but what the heck, its a rusted 112,000 mile car.

 

Glad you got it open. Probably beats my suggestion....... A 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel.