Blasted Hood Release Cable Broke Getting the Hood open again Nightmare

[CMM3]

My hood release cable snapped, of course it did so under the hood and it was closed at the time.
I searched for a way to pop the hood open but to no avail.
There are two catches both operated from the same cable joined together by another. They are invisable from the outside.
Ended up taken the front bumper off and then reomoving the aux fan and PS cooling pipe, Then I popped out the grills from the inside.
This gave me a view of the middle cable which I was able to grab with a pair of long nose pliers to release the pass side latch.
The drivers side latch was hidden behind the radiator support nicely tucked in behind it with no visable access. Couldn't remove the airduct or headlight on that side because the hood shielded access to the mounting screws for the headlight. Looking in through the grill opening I could see the safety latch and beyond/behind it the hood latch pin coming down from the hood.
Taping the hood up so as not to scratch it I did the only thing I could.
I put about a 10" metal cutting blade on my sawzall and very carefully cutting front to back I was able to cut through the latch and pin to open the hood.

Thank you BMW for this piece of design genius, cable breaks and you have to take half the freaking car apart and put a saw to metal.

I was lucky to get away with a chewing up the plastic guard that the safety latch goes into a $5 part along with a few minor scratches to the radiator support.

Four hours into it and $300 in new parts on order the car is in pieces waiting to be put back together.

Not a job for the faint of heart.

[BlackjackM]

That sucks. Where did it snap? No possibility of grabbing the broken cable somewhere before the firewall in the cockpit I assume?

[Chadddada]

Ouch. Yeah when my hood didn't open it was only because the passenger side hood pin was showing too few threads and therefore sucked itself down very tight with NO play in the spring. I was able to get out the grills and pull the passenger side cable as you did to open it, already having popped the driverside via the hood release handle.

[rf900rkw]

There is value in doing regular lube-n-oil changes properly.

[Bcar]

was it getting very stiff before it broke? my handle is a bit stiff to pull to release... uh oh.

[Randy Forbes]

There is value in doing regular lube-n-oil changes properly.

My suspicion is that the bump-rubbers and/or latch pin were not adjusted for enough clearance after putting the bra on...

If I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong

[dirtdevilnc]

was it getting very stiff before it broke? my handle is a bit stiff to pull to release... uh oh.

The handle in mine is super stiff as well

[Randy Forbes]

One thing you can do when the hood "is stuck" is to have a friend PUSH DOWN on the hood (as near as directly over the latch pins as possible) while you cautiously pull on the lever.

In many cases, this is enough to lessen the tension that the latch is exerting on the pin, reducing friction, and will allow the latches to be released.

I saw some pictures of CMM3's car with the bra on it sometime during the recent past, and I had hoped compensation had been made for the increased thickness (bra material filling the gap between hood and bumper/hdlts).

[CMM3]

The cable Broke under the hood, no way to grab it from inside the car.
Once I got it all apart I found that the latch mechanism were very stiff and difficult to operate due to corrosion, putting a good amount of added strain on the cables.

I just purchased the car so the lack of attention falls to the PO.
But I don't think there is good way to really get lubricant inside the latches as they are pretty well shielded by sheet metal and not readily accessable.

The adjustment with the bra may have contributed to the failure.
But it didn't seem to change the way it felt on or off, it was always pretty hard to release even after I lubricated everthing when I first purchased the car in either case.


dirtdevilnc
Putting in new cables and latches with the hood open is a pretty straight forward job, for anyone who has a sticky hood release I'd spend the money and replace these items, they are not all that expensive.
The aggravation of doing so after the cable breaks isn't worth it.

I got it all back together and it works nice an smooth, and if there is a bright side I spent about 5 hours getting the hood, bumper and headlights aligned nicely, after getting it back from the paint shop there was room for improvement.

[Randy Forbes]

... I found that the latch mechanism were very stiff and difficult to operate due to corrosion...

I'll buy that! Firsthand knowledge of same (shuddering thinking about those halfshaft & H-pipe bolts).

Fortunately, these bodies have excellent corrosion protection (as long as it doesn't get scraped off) but most fasteners are unprotected.