Hood Latch Issue Resolved

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Mar 14, 2021 | 02:22 PM

victorjohn

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Joined: Dec 2018

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From: WA

Hood Latch Issue Resolved

I was having trouble closing and securing the hood on my 2006 LS430. The secondary latch that you have to reach down in front of the hood and lift up worked fine but the primary latch that holds the hood securely to the car would not engage. I noticed that the release handle inside the car also felt loose. After reading a number of posts and watching YouTube videos I went to work to resolve. I put a ton of WD40 on the latch mechanism and worked the latch open and closed over and over with a screwdriver. When I pressed the latch closed I could still open it with the hood release from inside the car. This told me that the cable was still attached. But no matter how hard I slammed the hood down the U-shaped bracket attached to the top of the hood would not engage with the latch mechanism. The fix ended up being very simple. There are rubber guards on each side of the hood and they are adjustable. I simply screwed them in a little tighter thus slightly lowering the hood as it’s being closed which allowed the hood U-bracket to reach and engage with the latch. Worked like a charm. I do think that there’s also a spring that retracts the cable from the latch that may have been binding as well but perhaps all that WD40 loosened it up. I was ready to take it to the dealer for repair but glad that that I was able to easily fix it and maybe save a ton of money for a very simple repair. Hope this helps anyone out there having a similar issue.