I have a 96 audi a4 2.8 FWDm my car started overheating about a week ago. I pull over to pop the but no good. Luckily I wasn;t too far from home so I drive it back. I tried pulling cable from the interior but it almost came out completely, so I left it alone. I popped the grill off but can't reach bolts to remove hook from hood itself. I tried going from under the car but it's too tight to get anything up there much less see what I need to get to. I have researched and researched and come up with the obvious solutions but they don't work. Has anybody figured out a way to pop the hood without cutting into it? I would love to keep my current hood as money is tight for a while. Please please please help. I need to get my car inspected and check out why it overheated. Thanks all in advance! And please don't say search because I wouldn't be posting if I hadn't done that already. thanks again!

 

anybody have any sort of input?

 

what came off from the latch? was it something you can reach in and grab with a pair of pliers? Or can you epoxy the latch back on to whatever it broke off from?
Sounds like you'll need a new hood latch which is $20 but it's the whole assembly which you have to snake from the hood all the way back to the level you pull.

 

Hood release cable came off from latch under the hood, now I can't open my hood, I took the grill off but still have no room to reach anything from the front, was told go underneath but I don't have proper tool, not to mention there is barely any room to do so..

 

Ah from under the hood! I understand now. So you can pop it from the inside so it opens just that inch or two but that little lever that pops out broke?
Well can you still not reach in there with some thin needle-nose pliers to grab it? I have to imagine you just have to pull it about an inch to release it.
And yeah I can't believe it's possible to reach it from underneath. Maybe on the smaller 1.8

 

I opened the hood of a B5 A4 once in a situation like this, from below. You've got to get the front up SAFELY, say on jack stands, then with a bright light you can see where the latch is. I used a dowel or some such rod to push on the latch mechanism so that it released. I don't remember any particular details, but it must have been fairly obvious when I saw it.

 

no the cable either broke or fell off from under the hood mechanism so that I CAN'T pop it up that extra inch or two, the grille lever works fine

 

did you have the 1.8 or 2.8?

 

That was another guy's 1.8T. I've never had to try this on my 2.8.

 

So I managed to open my hood only because headlight tabs were already broken and removing the bumper, my issue now is how is the cable connected to the interior latch, I tried searching for a pic but nothing comes up. Can anybody show me a pic of their interior latch assembly please??