flyfishvt
11-01-2010, 05:27 PM
Ive read a ton of threads here about people whose hood release cable snapped. My hood release cable has been giving me fits for a few months. The final straw was last weekend when I pulled and pulled and barely got it to open. I was afraid I was going to pull the cable right out and have to perform major surgery to get the hood open.
I bought a brand new OEM BMW cable on ebay for $25 and since the hood latches were acting up too....I paid another $10 for a used pair of hood latches.
Today I went out and took off the lower speaker cover, the under dash trim and pulled the speaker insulation out. In the process I discovered the release handle mechanism was broken. Since the new cable comes with a new mechanism I was all set and all smiles. I disconected the old cable from the broken handle mechanism then used a zip tie to attach the new cable to the old one. The new one came with some kind of ribbed insulator that didn't want to feed through the hole so I cut it off. I assume its to keep the cable from rattling around inside the fender well. I just pulled the old one through with the new one and attached it to the new latches.
Its now like brand new and works smooth as a babies bottom.
The one thing that seems to cause other people trouble with this is the rubber gromet on the old cable. Luckily mine wasnt ever there anymore so the new cable just fed through like butter.
I bought a brand new OEM BMW cable on ebay for $25 and since the hood latches were acting up too....I paid another $10 for a used pair of hood latches.
Today I went out and took off the lower speaker cover, the under dash trim and pulled the speaker insulation out. In the process I discovered the release handle mechanism was broken. Since the new cable comes with a new mechanism I was all set and all smiles. I disconected the old cable from the broken handle mechanism then used a zip tie to attach the new cable to the old one. The new one came with some kind of ribbed insulator that didn't want to feed through the hole so I cut it off. I assume its to keep the cable from rattling around inside the fender well. I just pulled the old one through with the new one and attached it to the new latches.
Its now like brand new and works smooth as a babies bottom.
The one thing that seems to cause other people trouble with this is the rubber gromet on the old cable. Luckily mine wasnt ever there anymore so the new cable just fed through like butter.