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Thread: What to do when your hood release cable breaks

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    Toronto
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    87 SpecE30, 04 330ci

    What to do when your hood release cable breaks

    Just before Christmas, I decided to check my oil and coolant levels, since I'd be driving ~1500 miles over the next 2 weeks. I pulled the release lever, and there was no resistance, and I could hear the cable moving around under the hood. This is the third car whose hood latch has broken on me, and by far the most complicated. It cost me about $130 to replace everything, making it the most expensive as well (but not by much).

    Here's some background on how these hood release works:
    -It is unnecessarily complicated.
    -The handle pulls one cable that runs to a junction box mounted near the driver's side strut tower.
    -A second cable runs from this junction box to the driver's side latch.
    -A third cable runs from the driver's side latch to the passenger latch and actuates that.
    -The driver's and passenger latches are identical. The passenger latch has an empty space where cable #3 would attach.

    This post does a good job of illustrating the system:
    http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=342061

    Here are some additional pictures of the parts
    Latch (Part #51 23 8 203 859):

    Note that the mounting holes are NOT tapped. BMW uses self-tapping Torx bolts for these.

    Hood pin (Part #51 23 8 229 807):



    The Part numbers for the three cables are:
    Handle to junction box: 51 23 8 208 442
    Junction box to Driver's latch: 51 23 8 218 859
    Between two latches: 51 23 8 208 630

    I tried several approaches to get access. I tried from underneath (too many plastic panels, and would only get you access to backside of grille, which is not all that helpful. I tried taking off the driver's fender liner, which pretty much gets you access to the underside of the headlights.

    Here's how I dealt with it:

    -Remove the grilles. They were not meant to be removed with the hood closed. This will take some skill, patience and luck. There are 6 clips: 4 horizontal ones (1 at each corner), and 2 vertical ones (1 on each side). Each one of my grilles had one clip that was already somewhat broken. I was able to remove both without destroying any additional clips.

    -Once the grilles are off, you'll be able to see what you're dealing with.

    As you can see, the car is supremely dirty after its 1500 miles of snowy highway driving. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reach in and release the latches. There are two separate pieces of plastic guarding the latches, which I have already bent and folded here. I got them mostly back into place.

    -Instead, I took one of these bad boys

    and went to town on the hood pin. It's basically a lock back knife that uses standard sawzall blades.

    -After going through both hood pins, I now had to get the latches out. Take out the 3 torx bolts holding each of the latches. Then open up the cable junction box on the driver's fender wall and unlink the two cables. To get the latches out of the nostrils takes some extra work. There's this plastic panel that is basically there to guard the latches and cable:

    To remove this piece, I took out the four bolts holding the radiator support to the fenders to give me some wiggle room. I then took out the two screws (blue circles), and popped out the three clips (red circles).

    I managed to remove the panel in one piece from between the nostrils and radiator support. I did not reinstall it. If it weren't there, I would have been able to pop open the latches and save myself the $20 in new hood pins.

    -Assemble your new latches and cables, adding buttloads of grease to all the moving parts. Put the new latches in, and remember that the bolts are self-tapping.

    -Put in new hood pins.

    -Before you put the grilles back in, close the hood and check the alignment of the hood pins with the latches. Adjust the location of the hood pins as necessary.


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    San Antonio, TX
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    1,469
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    98m395m30032394318ic
    Man.. thanks for sharing.. I actually had that same problem, only after alot of failed other attempts. we were getting the cutting wheels out..., and
    we got really lucky, ...My brother reached all the way up on the drivers side from under the car., and somehow, God handed him the cable which he pulled and it opened.
    (If you can grab the cable and pull towards the fender, it will release..)

    I recommend everyone with an e46 get very familiar with the locations and these pics, as it has a potential to happen.
    93 e36 vert / 95 E36 M3 Alpine / 98 M3/4 Estoril / 00 '46 Frankenbimmer CI , 68s / shark tooth injected driver bolster with slimline low gloss duct tape / angled front pass kidney grill with custom eject hood release / EE LEDs moisture sealed/ Pep Boys silicone / Google sky point OEM HIDs with glovebox leveling arm after wishbone install / custom BMW round pin diagnostic to USB cabin routed laptop with INPA for constant CE light delete / sock modded / t-shirt mod / clicking sound.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Scranton, PA
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    2003 BMW M3
    Not a fun process by the looks of it but a solid DIY writeup. Thanks for the post.

    2003 ///M3 6spd Jet Black/Cinnamon | BC Racing Coils | VMR VB3's | Coby Wheel |
    (I Loan Valve Adjustment Tools! PM me...)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
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    Southeastern U.S.
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    Yes
    Wow. Thanks for posting this information. Which part of the system actually broke? Was it the handle-to-junction-box cable connection at the junction box?
    Last edited by G. P. Burdell; 01-07-2013 at 07:06 PM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    kuwait
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    76
    My Cars
    1999 323i 4door
    Nice DYI.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    263
    My Cars
    87 SpecE30, 04 330ci
    Quote Originally Posted by G. P. Burdell View Post
    Wow. Thanks for posting this information. Which part of the system actually broke? Was it the handle-to-junction-box cable connection at the junction box?
    The most frustrating thing is that there wasn't actually anything broken. The end of the cable had somehow come off the driver's side latch, but everything was intact. This seems completely impossible, and spending any more time thinking about it will probably just hurt my head.


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