Hi, new to this site. I bought my 05 is300 and the hood would not close properly. The carfax said its a clean title but has got into an accident in the front, hence my hood latch is misaligned or damaged. Seems like when i loosen up the 2 bolts in the front of the latch component, it catches and closes the first attempt. I've found a replacement part for about $80 and want to replace it but after the 2 bolts, i do not know how to take it off. Any advice with pics or vids?

 

My hood latch would not catch some time ago and I found the latch to just be dirty/sticky and would not reset to the latched position. Perhaps yours has the same issue. You can try to manually reset it by forcing the lever that's attached to the opener lever/cable and try to close it. If this is the problem, I was able to fix mine by spraying it with brake cleaner while moving the lever up and down. Then I lubricated it and it hasn't had an issue for a couple years.