Front hood release cable broken. Is this a pain to R&R. Any tips?

[Krieger]

Fortunately I have the emergency pull routed through the tow eye in the bumper, so I have been using that. The cable broke right were it wraps around the pull handle. I bought a new cable/housing. I've traced the cable routing from the the front latch through the left front fender, under the brake reservoir. It then goes into the passenger compartment and disappears...



*I figured this out and I am turning this into a how to thread. I will be adding pics from cell phone and adding (editing) text later.

[woodsman]

Originally Posted by Krieger

Fortunately I have the emergency pull routed through the tow eye in the bumper, so I have been using that. The cable broke right were it wraps around the pull handle. I bought a new cable/housing. I've traced the cable routing from the the front latch through the left front fender, under the brake reservoir. It then goes into the passenger compartment and disappears...

start disassembly at the other end?

[steved0x]

I have a 2000 and it happened to me, broke about an inch or two from the handle. I tried to get the old cable out and replace with a new one, sleeve and all. Much cursing later, I just made a new inner wire, swaged the handle end on, fed it through, and the swaged another end on at the match end, after giving the latch a good cleaning and lubricating. Let me dig out the details tomorrow, but it was much easier (to me) than getting the cable out. The part where it passes through the firewall and under the relay and fuse box is what got me. Replacing only the inner wire allowed me to skip all that. I could probably send you some wire and some elbows and swage collars, I had to buy a bunch. You would need only the swaging tool.

[Krieger]

Thanks for the offer Steve, but I already invented some new curse words today when I installing the new one. Your idea is a much better solution than changing the entire cable/housing out. It took a while, but I figured it out. I took some pics and will post with some directions for future reference.

[steved0x]

Sweet, I would love to see how you did it! I just couldn't seem to get any progress on removing the fuse block and the relay panel. I think if I could have gotten those out I would have been able to do it. Maybe if I took the driver seat out...

Steve

[BOOTLEG]

Same thing happened to me. After looking at all my options, I chose "AeroCatch" and glad I did.

[Krieger]

So the Bentley Manual is really lacking so I will add to it:

FWIW: My car is a 99

* Before you disconnect your battery park your windshield wipers so that they are straight up.
* Disconnect battery, negative side.
* Remove drivers seat. Funky ass plug...pull out two blue pins, then you slide the center section of the switch back, then it pulls in two pieces.
* Remove trunk lever assembly. Loosen the three allen bolts a few turns. Don't take bolts out. Pull up entire two handle assembly. It can't go far because of cables
* Remove fuse panel cover. See this picture. To do this pull off the smaller cover by hand and then remove the 4 Phillips screws and pull off the big cover.
* Disconnect the cable from handle and pull the cable forward.

[Krieger]

[Krieger]

* Remove front plastic trim that covers the latch. Plastic fasteners turn 90* then remove.
* Mark the position of the two bolts that hold the latch. I used a sharpie to trace the washer.
* Remove latch bolts and cable
* Pop out headlight using factory tool in toolkit
* Pull cable out- take a photo of routing if unsure.

[Krieger]

*Remove this cover. Hopefully your wipers are pointing up or your not going to get access. I don't know what this cover is called, but it is right behind the washer fluid reservoir. 3 Phillips screws. You can barely see the cable in the bottom right side of the hole.

[Krieger]

I had trouble pulling the cable towards the front of the car because of the lug on the end of the cable getting caught somewhere behind the fuse box. I cut the cable near the fuse box and took note of its routing. I then pulled it up to the access opening under the wipers.
*My goal was to feed the cable from the cabin to the front of the car since the grommet closer to the driver is larger the one in the fender and would have trouble fitting through the forward opening.

* I cut off both grommets with my dykes.
* Once I got the new cable into the wiper filler area I duct taped the old and new cables end to end.
* In the front left fender the cable was attached to a plastic clip and pulled apart easily.
* Pull forward on the old cable through fender.
* Cockpit grommet. Get started from cabin side. You can barely grab it under the reservoir with needle nose pliers to pop it through.
* Fender grommet...This little pos was where I invented new words. What worked for me was to pull back the fender liner above the wheel with one hand and keep trying with the other.
* Lube the front latch mechanism

* Reasemble