I recently wanted to open the hood to clean out some leaves that had fallen in there. Well, I go to pop the hood and nothing happens. Turns out I need to have someone else there to lift at the same time I pop it from inside the car. So that's not good and it gets worse because it seems like it's stuck as I can't push up the little lever to open the hood. I have tried really hard but it seems like it either might break or I might do some other damage. I am due for an oil change and the last time the hood was opened was from another oil change a friend had gotten for me as a thank you for letting him use my car. Took it to a place I have never been to. I have no idea if it's just a coincidence or if they somehow broke it. I have no proof though and it was 10 months ago so I need to deal with it. Any suggestions as to what is going on and how to fix it? I was thinking about just taking it to get an oil change and letting them figure it out but not sure if that is the best course of action. Oh and another thing. The low tire pressure light came on when I was driving back from vacation and so I pulled over and filled up the tires to 40 ish and went back on my way. The light turned off. Well, 10 miles or so, the light came back on. My next stop I checked to make sure there was no leak and tires weren't low and everything was fine. I drove another 300 miles home and light is still on and tires look fine. Is this a glitch? What is going on?
Take it to the place that changed the oil and tell them you've been unable to open the hood since they worked on the car and get them to deal with it. If you have date & time work was done, or even a receipt that might help. Most likely they did something wrong and they'll take responsibility for it.
Have your assistant your lovely wife or whoever pop the hood like you described and about the second paragraph once you get the hood up and the prop rod up if you look just in front of the radiator on that bar called the upper core support you will see some black rubbery round bumper things If you grab one of them note righty tighty lefty loosey what you want to do is Lucy all four of them one and a half turns That's raising them up now when you close the hood you want to bring it to about 5 in above where it meets and latches and drop it gently don't slam it and see if it latches now try the hood release again does it pop in the hood come up No have your assistant pull it up again for you and repeat the process about two 2 and 1/4 turns generally restores the pop-up feature of the hood and for some reason the car's been in a questionable fender bender you can buy these rubber spirals real long then cut them as you need them if the factory ones won't get it I doubt they broke the latch but I guess anything's possible I wouldn't see what the oil change people would have done to it they just pull the thing and lifted the hood up or else someone drove the car into the bay and the person standing in the front of the bay lifted the hood up to get it up because they realize this happens to a lot of these asian cars.
How many miles? If the tires weren't low, maybe one of the batteries in the sensor is dieing... The latch probably needs to be oiled. Mine sticks sometimes. Pull the handle, then go to the front middle of the hood where the latch is, make a fist, then give it a quick pop with the pinky side of your fist. That works for me. Then oil the hood latch. Look at where the pivot point are, lube them. After the hood is open, does the handle inside the car pull and release freely? If not, maybe a new cable is needed. But I'd bet that latch needs lubing...
It was back in Feb. So ask my friend if he still has the receipt from that long ago and then go in there and expect them to fix something that they might have broken 10 months ago? So much could have happened in that time that I could have done to it. If it's a week later, sure, I can go back but 10 months seems unreasonable to ask a company to fix when I have zero proof they did anything wrong. I suppose I could track down where my friend went and call them up and tell them the issue and see what they say. I can't afford a GF let alone a wife so it will be a friend or neighbor. They problem is it's stuck like I explained. I will probably need some kind of tool to get it open and I don't want to break it permanently and make things worse. It's just odd how difficult it is to open. A little over 72,000. I do believe I tried that before with my fist but I can try again. Oil with WD40 if I can open the hood? That's my biggest thing right now. I can assess all that lubing stuff if I can get the hood open.
You could ask a neighbor or friend or and auto parts store employee would certainly pull the cable or tap on the hood while you pull the cable. You also want to make sure the bolts are tight and it's aligned correctly. Maybe they forgot about a rag on the latch and it's jammed in it? Do you remember if the cable moves freely after the hood is open?
Usually what I do when I'm alone is I take the largest biggest keystone or flathead screwdriver that I have it's a big and it's almost a pry bar I put some tape around the flat part of it and I put that in between the hood and that little piece of rubber seal that runs along the edge of the hood The handle is acting like a weight and the rest of it I guess is a fulcrum whatever. Then I sit in the car or I reach in the window and I pull the hood release and usually the weight of the pry bar will just lift up the hood It doesn't dent or bust anything If you're having to pry the hood up any kind of hard then you've got some metal to metal contact like right in the lock or the Stryker piece is way out of alignment and usually that'll show up as as misalignment of the whole hood if it's not being held straight. So I'm not sure what you've got so you need to take a look at the hoop striker thingy that's mounted to the hood itself and the lower the hood down and look and see if that's trying to hit squarely in the slot of the hood latch which is mounted to the center of the upper core support.
I check oil level every once a weeky, but 10 months ago by an oil changer person?! Don’t make me say the obligatory diy in your own 3 car garage house should have been done.
I disagree... People who go into oil change places don't know much about how their car works, many couldn't open their own hood to look at the engine if they had to... So if you go in there for an oil change and confirm they have your license plate number on file and you tell them you're getting worried because you can't figure out how to check your oil level ever since the person who worked there (as in past tense because they get fired often) changed your oil and let them them figure it out. They'll immediately look at the name of the person who did the job and likely be more willing to blame them than something you did. Just make sure they don't upsell you on un-needed repairs because their customers who can't open their own hood are the customers they scam out of lots of money for dishonest reasons. They're literally their most important customers and you'll being representing yourself as one of them.
I checked more in depth today with a neighbor that knows some stuff about cars and the left side of the rubber or plastic that holds it down is off and that's why I can't open the hood. He says he can use his clamps to open it up but it looks like someone hit into it. I made a different post about both of my fender linings falling off and my right side being loose and that happened well before I got the oil change. Thank you for the suggestions. I highly doubt the oil change people did this. It's too noticeable to them to just leave as is and I don't see how they could have done it anyway. It's worth a shot calling them up though and tell them what's going on.
Oil change people fixed the hood. They tried by hand at first but then needed a screwdriver to get it open. They told me it got bent and it must have gotten shut too hard last time. Told me to shut it gently. They also checked my oil and told me it was very clean. Oh and the tire pressure light went off last week. Guess it was a glitch or something.
