My hood is not locking down and I know that the cable isn't broken so it must be something with the primary locking mechanism. I tried pushing it down with a screwdriver to make sure it goes all the way down but that isn't helping. The only thing holding the hood down right now is the secondary latch.

Do you have any advice on how to get the mechanism to turn over and lock up when the hood loop goes into it? or what may be causing this problem?

By the way slamming the hood down isn't working out for me

1999 GS400

thanks
josh

 

Spray the lock with lubricant and play with the cable until it pops. Hummm sounds familiar like .... LOL Any way Or you can drive around and hit a few small bumps and it'll snap back. Good luck.

 

...and drive a short distance, hitting a few bumps/potholes to jar the car. That should shake the primary latch back into position (it used to work on my car like a charm). Two, inject lubricant into the cable sheath at the primary latch - the cable is probably binding. And three, inspect, disassemble, and reassemble the latch mechanism. I had a mechanic do this for me (actually, he did it on his own because he was annoyed by the mechanism) and I've not had a problem since.

good luck
dd

 

Well has a the vehicle been in any fender benders. I had the exact same issue. I was told i had to change the latch. By pulling the latch out... pulling around it, it was able to catch and hasn't given me a problem since. Try that and see.

 

I had this problem before, and it was due to the wire being bent somewhere down the line. I had my mechanic disassemble the whole thing and straighten it out.

 

Bumping an old thread . . .

I just encountered this problem the other day at the dealer while getting an oil change. They wanted to charge me $400 to replace the latch and cable, but when I told them that I didn't have time and needed to leave, they miraculously were able to get it closed (but warned me not to open it because I probably won't be able to get it closed again).

Here's the question. What exactly is sticking and what do I need to spray WD-40 on to prevent it from happening again? I suppose I could always drive around the block to shake things up a bit, but I'd like to know what exactly is causing the problem in the first place? Is the cable not going back into place after you pull the lever? Is the receptable not in an open position to grab the latch when the hood comes down it? Thanks.

e

 

I too am going through this issue. Disassembled my hood latch and cable and I found that the cable sleeve had broken at the latch. Dirt, grime, rust, etc. had built up at this break and wasn't allowing the steel cable to slide freely. The latch itself seems to be working flawlessly. Bought a new cable, $46 at Lexus and went to replace it. What a job, it appears that the drivers side front fender must come off or at a minimum the inner fender. The cable feeds from the firewall side into the car and goes in only one way. I'm going to pay Lexus to fix it because I don't have the time for a job of this size. In the mean time I just cut the cable and fed it out through the grill near the DRL, wrapped the cut end in a home made handle and open the hood from the outside. Fortunately for me, where I work and live are secure and having the cable outside for a short while is a non-issue. DO NOT open the hood without first unlocking your doors, the alarm will sound and give you quite a scare the first time. This and headlight moisture are two things Lexus should of put more thought into.

 

pull the cable underneath the front support thing...theres a cable that runs underneath that yellow caution sticker IIRC.

 

I had this same problem on my 01 gs3. WD the **** out of the latch mechanism, it probably is either gunked up or sticking. What i had was the inside release lever wasn't going back into the dash, so i had a buddy hold it in while i shut the hood, and it must've given enough slack or backpressure to snap the latch back in.

 

Damn, i guess this is common, i too have this issue.

 

I had the same problem at 70k. MY hood latch was frozen. I just had lexus replace it instead of dealing with it every time you want to pop the hood. It was not to bad. like $100. I also had it replaced while they were servicing other things.