Hood shakes at highway speeds. Is there a way to adjust hood latch down?

[reznunt]

I'm not ready to bust out the welder yet, it's not that big of a problem.

If you have a welder, this is a 1/2 banana job that would've been done in less time than it took you to come back to this thread and read all these responses about adjusting the rubber bump stops (we both know it doesn't stop the wobbling until your hood sits way high... I had the same exact issue as you).

 

[KFunk740]

Well I have to move a motorcycle and an engine to wheel the welding cart outside, hah. I’m going to adjust the latch part first, myself. Didn’t know those bolts were in slotted holes until I saw the FSM pages. Actually first, I’m gonna do several other things that have higher priority. I’m not OP, though.

 

[twstrchasr]

The driver side of my hood started doing this ever so slightly (but noticeable) after I put on slightly bigger tires (285 Cooper S/T MAXX's). Really bugs the hell out of me because I never noticed it before !!

 

[KFunk740]

While working on my power antenna earlier, I tried adjusting the latch per the FSM. Yeah, there’s barely any adjustment on at all. Couldn’t really budge it. I think I might do reznunts idea sometime soon, and put a tack on the hook.

 

[jLB]

While working on my power antenna earlier, I tried adjusting the latch per the FSM. Yeah, there’s barely any adjustment on at all. Couldn’t really budge it. I think I might do reznunts idea sometime soon, and put a tack on the hook.

Yes, I got all excited, when I found the section on adjusting the hood latch, in the FSM. When we actually tried it, there wasn't enough movement to make any real difference (in our case).

 

[BillZ260]

I know my truck had a small front collision, I'm guessing that tweaks the middle support enough to cause this. Everyone else have light front damage too? My guess is yes.

Maybe we can get a known, non-incident measurements to compare to?

 

[KFunk740]

I hit a deer at ~55mph recently, but the hood was shaky before that too, hah.

 

[Heraldo]

Read the FSM
View attachment 1751433

If hood latch adjustment doesn’t do it, your latch probably needs to be replaced.

Is there a trick to adjusting the hood latch? I loosened the bolts and it really wouldn't budge.

 

[DirtDawg]

Is there a trick to adjusting the hood latch? I loosened the bolts and it really wouldn't budge.

Not sure, never done it. Does it use centering bolts as shown in that picture? If it does swap those out. If not I’d try to use a little persuasion.

Some people have said that it doesn’t have a very big adjustment range, so that might just be it.

 

[BillZ260]

I'm thinking pull out of the the support stem too, see it that pushes the latch up or maybe pulls it down some.

 

[Beanzermin]

I was having this issue as well. Driver side flutters. A buddy and myself twisted the hood and it went away.

1) open the hood.
2) grab the driver side and pull down on it, while a buddy pushes up on the passenger side.

Seemed to solve mine for awhile at least. Not a permanent fix...

 

[Ridgerunner78]

I had the same problem as the OP. I adjusted the rubber stops but was not happy with how the hood sat above the fenders. I tried adjusting the latch but found very little movement. This weekend I removed the grill and the hood latch bolts to get a better look. I found that the two side bolts had a fairly large hole behind them, but the stud with the nut at the bottom had no room for movement. I used a dremel to take the bottom of the hole down some and allow the latch to be adjusted down. I only needed about 1/8" of adjustment to bring my hood back down to where I was happy with the alignment.

 

[Hugh Calgary]

I also enlarged the 2 mounting holes on the center support bracket. I removed the bracket to enlarge the holes. Mounted the latch about 1/4” lower. No vibration.

 

[Pyrenees]

I've noticed a small amount of hood flutter on my '01 LX as well. It's so minor though, I doubt I'll ever do anything about it. Latch seems solid.

 

[Heraldo]

I also enlarged the 2 mounting holes on the center support bracket. I removed the bracket to enlarge the holes. Mounted the latch about 1/4” lower. No vibration.

View attachment 1783131

View attachment 1783132

I don't understand the orientation of the photo you took and what part you drilled. What about where those two bolts, one near the release latch and the other close to the horn. Are those important to helping the latch move? But thanks for posting, it seems easier than asking a buddy of mine to weld on my hood.

Also, I've never removed the grill, is it difficult?

 

[KFunk740]

I believe I found an easy 30 second solution to my issue. I put a couple loops of electrical tape around the bar/loop in the center of the hood, which fits down into the center latch.

For mine, when the hood is latched, you could lift up on the hood and feel some play up and down in the center where it latches onto the bar. Seems there’s a little bit of wear on the teeth inside the latch, so the bar can slop around a little. Didn’t feel like ordering new latch or welding right now, and a bit of tape right around the bar took the slop out of the latch, and it fits tight. Maybe not best material for long run, but so easy, don’t really care. You might be able to bend the bar upward a little to accomplish same thing.

 

[843LX]

Don't feel like reading all these so i am probably repeating what someone said but on the corners of the HOOD towards the front, there are two black rubber, twistable, cylinders.. You just rotate these to tighten the hood. Mine was doing the exact thing at high speeds until I noticed that these pieces moved.

 

[Mojavecruiser]

Hi All, I’m coming into this thread nearly 2 years later. I have the same issue, but a possible different solution. I noticed my hood vibrating more and more over the last three years. Yesterday I removed the hood insulation because it had become caked w/ oil and dirt. As I started cleaning the underside of the hood I noticed that the caulk connecting the hood sheet metal to the hood supports or cross beams became brittle and fell out. This caused them to separate. I saw numerous spots where this had already occurred. Given that my hood latches and rubber bumper adjustments don’t appear to have changed or backed out (they are nice and tight), but the caulk has dried and fallen out resulting in a lack of connection seems to be what has changed. Since I have not tried my fix of using metal to metal caulk (Titebond 10.1 oz. Metal Roof Clay Sealant (12 Pack)-62051A - The Home Depot) I cant say this will work, but I will give it a try. Hopefully this will help us all. I miss the solid appearance of my hood, and seeing my FJ80 hood shake makes me feel like my beast is a bit of a dog. Stay tuned and I’ll report back.

 

[jLB]

Hi All, I’m coming into this thread nearly 2 years later. I have the same issue, but a possible different solution. I noticed my hood vibrating more and more over the last three years. Yesterday I removed the hood insulation because it had become caked w/ oil and dirt. As I started cleaning the underside of the hood I noticed that the caulk connecting the hood sheet metal to the hood supports or cross beams became brittle and fell out. This caused them to separate. I saw numerous spots where this had already occurred. Given that my hood latches and rubber bumper adjustments don’t appear to have changed or backed out (they are nice and tight), but the caulk has dried and fallen out resulting in a lack of connection seems to be what has changed. Since I have not tried my fix of using metal to metal caulk (Titebond 10.1 oz. Metal Roof Clay Sealant (12 Pack)-62051A - The Home Depot) I cant say this will work, but I will give it a try. Hopefully this will help us all. I miss the solid appearance of my hood, and seeing my FJ80 hood shake makes me feel like my beast is a bit of a dog. Stay tuned and I’ll report back.

Similar to this thread?

Does anyone else’s hood pop in and out like this?

This usually happens at interstate speeds when a storm is approaching and the pressure changes. FWIW it’s the original ARACO hood with the VIN stamp, not a cheap replacement like I suspected at first.

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Mojavecruiser]

Spot on JLB- MUD is so chuck full of info, but there are often parallel threads. At least my MacGuyver brain was on the right wavelength- just a year too late. Ha!