HELP Hood won't open and dead battery (1 Viewer)

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Oct 11, 2010
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Location
Iowa City IA area
My hood wont open and my battery is dead. Is there a way to open the hood from in front and under the car? I've looked and didn't see a way but might be missing something. I have a new hood cable and kept putting off installing it. I guess that will be the first thing after I get the hood open and jumped. This is a 2004.
 
"Hood release", titles only, 100 section only.

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Is it cold in your area? Did the hood used to open?

Mine was frozen up from the cold/snow recently , I just gave it a good whack while someone held the lever and it popped open. Once open spray some silicone lube on the latch to help prevent freezing.
 
You could also try one of those cigarette lighter chargers to get it charged up and started, and then address the hood latch at your leisure.
 
Maybe use a heat gun on hair dryer to warm up the latch through the grill, then hit it with some WD40 or PB Blaster or White Silicone and see if that's enough to pop it open?

I think you just made 50 of us think "I should preemptively go spray mine to make sure this doesn't happen to me"...! :)
 
So as a follow up I was able to get the hood open yesterday because it warmed up into the 30s. I guess being down near zero really made the latch freeze up and when it warmed up the latch thawed out just enough to get it to pop open. On the down side the battery won't even charge up. When I turn the key I'm getting grinding noise coming from one of the abs relays. I found a thread on mud where someone had posted they were getting the same thing and it was because the battery was completely shot. I'm going the buy a new battery as well as a new latch and install the cable I already have. Thanks for the replys.
 
So as a follow up I was able to get the hood open yesterday because it warmed up into the 30s. I guess being down near zero really made the latch freeze up and when it warmed up the latch thawed out just enough to get it to pop open. On the down side the battery won't even charge up. When I turn the key I'm getting grinding noise coming from one of the abs relays. I found a thread on mud where someone had posted they were getting the same thing and it was because the battery was completely shot. I'm going the buy a new battery as well as a new latch and install the cable I already have. Thanks for the replys.
Do you have a volt meter to test the battery?
Are you trying to jump start or do you have a charger that your letting charge for a while?

A new battery probably isn't a bad idea but may want to see if you can bring yours back to life first.
 
You could also try one of those cigarette lighter chargers to get it charged up and started, and then address the hood latch at your leisure.
I think the lighter in mine is off when the keys are off but once everything is back up and running I will verify. I did buy 2 of the solar trickle chargers. I have a 96 that the battery is dead on too.
 
Do you have a volt meter to test the battery?
Are you trying to jump start or do you have a charger that your letting charge for a while?

A new battery probably isn't a bad idea but may want to see if you can bring yours back to life first.
Battery charger.
 
Battery charger.
The solar panel trickle charger? Should pick up a cheap multimeter and check the battery voltage. or just go buy a new battery if you're sure that's the problem =]
 
The solar panel trickle charger? Should pick up a cheap multimeter and check the battery voltage. or just go buy a new battery if you're sure that's the problem =]
I should say solar panel maintainer.
 
I don't have much experience with those but I would assume it's not enough juice to bring a totally dead battery back to life. It might pay to get a proper charger or at least a voltage reading off the battery to know what you are up against.

7 Function Digital Multimeter - https://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-63759.html
I have a regular battery charger. I just bought the solar maintainers for after I get the batteries either A fully charged or B buy new batteries.
 
Unless you can get the hood open, many of these options don't help much. I am not sure about the 04, but on the early 100s, you can replace the ACC relay with a jumper to provide constant power to the Cig lighter ports. If you have any power at all, you could try leaving the key on ACC as it doesn't take much juice to activate that relay.
 
I might suggest a large Anderson plug hooked up to your battery that can be accessed while the hood is closed. For charging or jumpstart.
 

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