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Thread: front hood cable

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    west new york,nj
    Posts
    287
    My Cars
    328i

    front hood cable

    About a year ago, I suddenly can't open the hood. After several methods, I finally opened the hood and found the hood cable is loose about half a inch so that I have to turn the handle extra 1/4 turn in order to open the hood.
    There was a broken enclosure to the cable near the grill. It was a bit rusty but nothing wrong with threads so I just patched the enclosure and seal it with some sealant.
    I greased the hood latch and was planning to replace the cable until I found the easiest way is to remove the front bumper and it's quite expensive from my mechanic.
    My questions are:
    1. Since nothing wrong with handle side, I suspect it's loose on the latch side. Is broken cable thread the most common issue here?
    2. Even I don't feel issue opening the hood now, I don't want to deal with stuck hood in the future, must I replace the cable, right? I was thinking of shortening the cable with some cable stop, but afraid that just mask the underlying issue.
    3. Is the easy route to remove front bumper in order to replace the hood cable?

    Thanks.
    Last edited by yxd0018; 04-05-2020 at 02:07 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Owings, Md
    Posts
    1,105
    My Cars
    1998 328i
    Replace the cable, both of them. The out jackets rust up and/or escape the sockets that they seat into. They really aren't that expensive or technical to replace. Just tedious and awkward.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    west new york,nj
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    328i
    Quote Originally Posted by gdavid View Post
    Replace the cable, both of them. The out jackets rust up and/or escape the sockets that they seat into. They really aren't that expensive or technical to replace. Just tedious and awkward.
    Is removing the front bumper the easier route to replace the cables?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Location
    Owings, Md
    Posts
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    1998 328i
    Quote Originally Posted by yxd0018 View Post
    Is removing the front bumper the easier route to replace the cables?
    I don't think it would help, I did it an awkward way that barely worked, the most straightforward I have seen is just bending the top of the core support up aggressively to access the latches

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    west new york,nj
    Posts
    287
    My Cars
    328i
    as I can't see the condition of latch, do I need to order the latch (L + R) upfront?
    Find some steps at https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...(the-easy-way)
    and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYWKL_5sAaI
    Last edited by yxd0018; 04-12-2020 at 01:51 AM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Oneida, NY
    Posts
    6,370
    My Cars
    1993 318is/who to knows
    Bumper has nothing to do with it. The grille and headlights, yup. Latches are easy. Alihning the grille can be a pita tho.

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