well, went to change the oil in my coupe tonight, got the car up on ramps, drained the pan, put everything back, then when I went to open the hood, nothing. The latch is stuck with the hood closed and I have no oil in the car. Does anyone out there have any ideas on how I could get it open without having to get it towed to a dealership or something? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

The cable might be disconnected or broken. I couldnt find my wire through the grill but it could possibly be disconnected at the lever under the dash. You might be able to grab the wire with some pliers... (needle nose). Hope you get it figured out without visiting the Chrysler Stealership. Good luck!

 

tried pulling the cable with pliers, it didn't budge.

 

Try gently pushing down and up on the hood while having someone pull the hood release at the same time. No experience with this but worth a try.

 

By the way...love your avatar.

"Junior, remind me to smack yo mama when I get home cause there ain't noooo wayyyyy......you came from these loins"

 

tried it. no luck, still no movement in the cable.

 

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...d-release.html

Might be an answer here. Good luck

 

As a 'last ditch' effort you can go through the grill and replace it afterwords...... Not nice, but better than not being able to drive your car...

 

When I get home, I'll try to remember to look things over to see what shortcut I can come up with.

Thanks for the heads up... this can happen to any of us, I suspect. Guy that used to take car of my cars always oiled the hood latch and cable to avoid this very problem. (MIchigan road salt can mess up ANYTHING!)

 

Don't do this, that grill is uber expensive

 

well, got it towed into my local dealership today, they found that the cable was hung up, so they clipped the cable near the latch, looking at about $200 to replace it. but at least they got it open and could get my oil and filter put in so its drivable again.

 

It's part of regular maintenance on a motorcycle to drop some lube into the cables. I've seen so many issues with hood latch cables over the years, I can't believe the manufacturers don't add it to their recommended maintenance list.

 

One little follow up on this is to look down into your latch mechanism (on any car) & see where the metal to metal contact is made each time the hood has closed. Strongly recommend to apply liberal chassis grease to these points & spread around to all areas involved even in the under hood part of the latch. My 93 Mustang almost froze shut there due to metal to metal movement for all it's lifetime with my only oiling the small cable itself while neglecting the latch area entirely. I was lucky enough that pressing on the hood while pulling on the cable inside was the only way I finally saved myself a good bit of time & expense installing a new cable after cutting off the old one.

 

had a guy thats done work for me before on my buick do some body work during the week (dad backed into my car a couple of days after getting home from the fall dragon meet, dented the fender.) he took a look at it and can fix it for under $100.