So as long as we're posting in a zombie thread....

May I recommend Schaeffer's Penetro90 Penetrating Oil & Spray Lube? Most tuner shops (and one of my local Napa stores) handle Shaeffer's products or you can buy it (at a few dollar premium) at .

I fell in love w/ Schaeffer's products at a demonstration (which I attended intending to yell "snake oil" in the face of the Honda guy who invited me), and run their semi-synth oil in my other cars. I was SO excited to see that they now have a couple of Euro spec lines too.

Anyway, when I first acquired Cooper, I had to do a couple of shorter pulls to get the bonnet to release, and the driver's door (left side) absolutely screamed as the stopper bar slide over the nylon bushing (it also took a determined effort to ingress or egress). 4 or 5 squirts of Penetro later and the bonnet pops easily, and the left door glides open silently.

 

Did you get it open?

 

My turn I guess.
My cable is frozen and I snapped it off the inside hood release. No matter how hard I pull it will not release.
I was able to release the drivers side latch from under the car but the passenger side isn't budging. I can see the bottom of the hood and the D shaped metal that the latch catches onto but can't trigger the latch.

I've tried the pry bar and various other devices. any ideas?

Can anyone post a photo of the latch from under the hood? I assume it's similar to the drivers side.....but I'd like to be sure.
Spent 10 minutes on the drivers side with success. 2 hours on the passenger side without any luck.

Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

@ECS - yes I was able to open it. I oiled everything up and it works great. I did the same to my wife's clubman which was hard to open too. Now both hoods open smoothly.

 

@wmsue - I would pull off the trim inside that covers the latch lever. You will immediately see where the cable is pulled out. Reattach the cable and/or hold it in place. Then have someone push down on the front of the hood while you pull the lever. When I did that it opened right up.
I cleaned mine up as much as possible, then added a little oil and anti-seize compound to the latch. (Remember WD-40 can freeze and will evaporate.) As someone else mentioned, I also used the zip tie around the cable at the latch lever to help hold it in place.

 

That was the first thing I tried.
No luck


Thanks

 

With the front passenger side inner fender off, I can put my arm all the way up to the latch. It seems to be frozen. Only the spring has any give to it.
Still can't see enough to totally visualize the latch though.

Bill

 

latch with hood open



latch in closed position



push where the screwdriver is to open the latch

 

These photos are taken from the engine side looking towards the grill so facing this direction you would rotate the left side of the latch to open the hood.

If you are standing in front of the car facing the hood, you need to rotate the right half of the latch to open it.

 

Thanks very much for the photos.
I hope to give it another try tomorrow.

Bill

 

Good luck and be sure to unlatch it with a screwdriver or pry bar, not your fingers!

 

Will do

Thanks

 

UPDATE..... the saga continues.
I finally got back to the challenge of getting the hood open.

Using the photos as a guide I reached up with a bent screwdriver and the spring from the latch fell off and landed on the ground. Hope this doesn't cause any major problem. I hadn't started to pry on anything yet (this time).
Still can't quite get the right angle to pop the latch.
Going back out to the shop to try again.

Bill

 

GOT IT !!
Thanks again for the photos. They saved me a trip to the dealer and many $$$$$
Turns out the cables are fine, but the latch on the passenger side is frozen stiff.
I'm going to try and get it free and lubricate everything.
I ended up prying on the latch catch and then pulling up hard on the hood.


Bill

 

Glad you got it open. The latches are definitely the issue, not the cables. I slathered mine with anti-seize compound.

 

Just found the solution to reducing force needed to release hood. Everything already stated is true, but even after removing rust, penetrating oil, white grease, working latch, and tie wrapping the cable to the bracket it still required Herculean effort to release. Unsat. Got out the grinder - I was going to reduce some metal on the two loops that are retained by the latching mechanism.

I then noticed that each retaining loop is surrounded by a plastic escutcheon held in place by a plastic screw and anchor. So, the solution is as simple as removing the plastic screw, the anchor, and escutcheon and unwinding the loop (turn counter clockwise) until pressure is relieved on the latch mechanism. Hood now opens with one finger.

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Bill, wondering how you got the drivers side free? I was able to get the passenger side but I cannot see anything that looks like a latch on the drivers side even with the wheel and wheel well cover off/ Appreciate any suggestions since it sounds like you were able to do this.

 

I got both driver and passenger latches open. Having the wheels and wheel well covers off really made no difference as the latches are mounted at the top and to the side of the radiator (on my 2010 Cooper S). The passenger side is much easier to get to and eventually also got the drivers side to pop. Jacking the car up and reaching up with a long screw driver to trip the latch worked after some (quite a lot) finagling. Having someone with long thin arms helps. Saved myself the 600 bucks the dealer quoted. Here is the interesting (actually quite irritating part), what I found is that the cable was disconnected at the junction box, the single cable running from inside latch to junction box, and that the junction box was not in the correct location. The last time the hood was open was when the car was at the dealer having its timing chain and tensioner replaced and clearly they did not reconnect this properly.

Bad bad MAG Mini of Dublin Ohio!

 

Thanks for the update. And glad you got it open. Spray those connections with grease while you are down there. I do my front latches once a year to keep the rust off.

 

Thanks for this great tip about the retaining loop. I used the advice from this thread today and was still having issues with the hood releasing properly after lubing everything up. Un-threading the retaining loop out two turns on the passenger side and one turn on the driver side made all the difference.

Note that I ultimately I got my hood open by cyclically applying pressure with my body weight - about as much as i felt like I could apply without denting the hood - while my wife was applying moderate pressure on the hood release. We went through several escalating rounds of this before it ultimately released. It seems that in my case, the passenger side latch was the culprit.

 

I put it back and brace it but still nothing, I need to get the hood up but nothing seems to be working

 

You will have to reach up under the hood with a long flat head and try to hit the lock mechanisms and push the cables.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hood-pull.html

 

When mine did this I just pulled the wheel liners out and they were easily accessible

 

I had put my car in service mode and forgot to rehook the hood release cable. After trying many things, I finally got it open.From under the car I removed the top and bottom screws that held the fan in, twisted it out of the slots and dropped it out. I was able to get the passenger side latch open by pulling on its cable. The drivers side was much harder. I went online and looked at many pics of the latch. I saw that I had to push the lever that had the cable attached to it. The lever was to the left of the hood catch and I was able to unlatch the hood with a long screwdriver

 

Chances are the plastic end of the cable shroud has come out of its place on the metal part of the release. You'll need to remove the kick panel around the hood release lever. To do that, get something behind one edge of it and pull and it will pull free. I had the same problem and was able to wedge it behind the brake pedal to keep it out of the way. (2010 R56 auto). Put the plastic end of the cable shroud back in its place and wrap a cable tie around it so that it won't pop out again. Now try to open your hood.

Once the hood is open, apply lubricant to the hood latches. Now look up at the underside of the hood. There are two u-shaped brackets that hold your hood down. Loosening those will reduce the force necessary to pull your hood latch lever. Remove the screw next to each one, remove the plastic shroud, and loosen the u=shaped brackets by turning CCW. I turned mine two full turns and that did the trick. Replace the plastic shroud and screw.

Hope this works for you, it did me. Thank God for this forum and youtube! The garage quoted $475 to replace both cables. My cost: zippo!