How to Open Hood Without Being in Cockpit?
Asked by mallardslayer Jun 08, 2011 at 01:00 PM about the 1999 Mercury Cougar V6 Hatchback FWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
The cable seems to be tight inside the car, but it won't trip the latch. How can I open the hood to tighten the cable or adjust the latch?
4 Answers
cougarmania90 answered 13 years ago
Use a needle nose pliers, this is what you do...you lift up the latch on the inside that releases your hood, find the bare wire, then place your needle nose plier tip furthest to the part of the wire that is closest to toward the firewall (its a tight fit and only a little bit of wire is showing) then pull the wire toward you with the pliers that should release you hood. Once inside you can see that the little stop is usually streched farther then it should be, just crimp some metal over the extra cable that releases the hook.
This was very helpful! I went to the latch, removed the cover panel and had easy access to the cable. It had slipped off the back of the handle. It appears that this is the case in 90% of this miss hap. Thanks for your advice!
We tried that on ours and it still won't release. We moved on to use pliers and only succeeded in stretching the cable. I am afraid I may have the cut out the grill to get to the hood locking latch.
cugarlover answered 5 years ago
There is a lever that is behind the metalic front bumper if you pull on it it will release but while your pulling on it you have to push the hood open