twobrains

I searched for threads, but all the hood issues I found involved the interior lever not releasing or "popping" the hood.

My issue is not that part of the hood release. The hood pops just fine. But, when I go to lift the hood while lifting up on the little lever in the grill it doesn't release and will go up about an inch before it hits.

Same thing happened a couple of weeks ago and I managed to get it open by reaching my hand in there and wiggling the thing metal rod that goes from the grill to the top of the hood where the release is, but its not working this time.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Oh, and I can't drive it somewhere, because the reason I was opening the hood was because car has been sitting for a while and the battery is dead. It is a 1999 RX300, if that matters.

salimshah

You should be able to push 1" at the "v" portion of the release lever. The release lever pushes a rod which deflects the locking "J". The locking "J" has a spring that brings the "J" to normal (engaged) position.

Any problem in the above setup will prevent the locking 'J" to clear the lock.

Are you getting enough travel?
Do you feel a spring counter push on the release lever?

With long enough screwdriver/rod etc one can push the "J to release. Good luck on that. Unfortunately the hood has to be opened up, before it can be fixed.

Note: Bit late for the OP, but other readers can learn from this. If you encounter a problem and it has not been remedied, then it can happen again.

Salim

twobrains

Thanks, that was very helpful. I was able to get the hood open. I had been trying to push on the mechanism from the bottom, following the rod that is there which wasn't working. What did work was inserting my implement at the top of the grill close to the latch and pulling up with it and from the bottom of the hood as normally.

When I got it open, I saw that the rod had bent to almost conform with the curvature of the hood. I had thought that was normal (and maybe it is), but I bent the rod straight and now it seems to open normally (for now).

chenxingha

I had difficulty to open the hood this morning: everything were working except the J part would not go all the way to release. Fortunately, there is enough clearance on the left to insert a small flat wood piece to force the J part moving to the right-side a bit more (photo 1). Once the hood is up, I noticed that the corrosion on the fixed metal piece (on the hood) which is preventing the J part to move all the way. I used sand paper to remove some of the corrosion residue (photo 2) and put some brake pad lubricant (gel) between the metal pieces and made sure that the J part can move all the way to touch the hood (photo 3). Now the front lifter can release the hood easily.

salimshah

Good trick. I grease all hinges and releases once a year. Once rust goes past the outside coating, it is hard to recover.

Salim

chenxingha

Is there a part # for the hood latch assembly?

salimshah

Give your local Lexus parts a call?

You can also check web sites such as Lexus of South Atlanta on line parts.

Salim

Mfrankster

This is a video how-to for this situation, including how to get the latch unstuck in order to open the hood, and the part number for the replacement part.

Rx330fnboi

Did you try the heavy pry bar trick? Stick it in dead center and let it hang putting pressure against the latch then pop the hood and it should open up if it isn’t a broken cable. If it does open blast it with a penetrating lubricant like wd40