Honda Car Forum

The hood release cable in my 1994 Civic EX has been sticking near the latch for
a while now preventing the hood from locking shut. I occassionally need to jam
a screwdriver against the cable to unseize it. This time, however, i think i
dislodged the cable from the bracket which allowed me to close (lock) the hood,
but i am no longer able to open it using the hood release lever under the dash
(the cable is slack, not broken).

Any easy way to open the hood? And, once open, any suggestions on how to fix
the cable problem (hopefully without routing a new cable from the dash)?

"Ress199" <ress199@aol.com> wrote
> The hood release cable in my 1994 Civic EX has been sticking near the latch
for
> a while now preventing the hood from locking shut. I occassionally need to
jam
> a screwdriver against the cable to unseize it. This time, however, i think i
> dislodged the cable from the bracket which allowed me to close (lock) the
hood,
> but i am no longer able to open it using the hood release lever under the dash
> (the cable is slack, not broken).
>
> Any easy way to open the hood?

If it's just a matter of taking up the slack, the following is semi-easy.

My 91 Civic's hood release cable has been slack for years. I have been opening
the hood by holding the cable end with a pair of pliers and pulling (I'm a woman
with little upper body strength, so I should think most men could handle this
easily).

Last year my cable stuck, and I couldn't open it even with my usual force using
the pliers. I ended up rigging my car's wheel jack, attaching the hood release
cable end to the part of the jack that ordinarily rises most. I angled the jack
in the passenger foot well it so the forces were all being applied as correctly
as possible, and got the cable pulled enough to pop the hood. Took maybe five
minutes after I figured out how to rig it. Maybe 30 minutes after I had the
idea.

Subsequently, I removed the hood release mechanism on the front of the car
(though it can't be fully detached), washed it down with WD-40 (and it *was*
full of sand and dirt), applied white lithium grease, and voila, everything
worked much better. I'm back to opening it with the pliers. No big deal.

> And, once open, any suggestions on how to fix
> the cable problem (hopefully without routing a new cable from the dash)?

IIRC from asking around, routing a new cable is hell to do.

I think the Honda maintenance manuals recommend white lithium grease be applied
to hood and trunk lock mechanisms and door hinges about every two years.

>"Ress199"
> I think i dislodged the cable from the
>bracket which allowed me to close (lock) the
>hood, (the cable is slack, not broken).
> Any easy way to open the hood?

I would observe a friend`s 94 Civic latch design. Then, design a curve shape
tool to slide the hood latch release lever (the part that cable fell off)
towards the correct direction to pop the hood, while a friend holds the hood
down. The hood latch may have a clip on cover. Remove that, or, if possible,
remove the two 6 by 1mm bolt holding the latch. Unless, you're referring to
another problem.

>any suggestions on how to fix cable problem

Lubrication and/or slightly adjust the latch either left or right, up or
down.