My hood won't open correctly. when I pull the hood release handle from inside the car the hood won't pop. If I have someone pull and hold the handle from inside the car I can open the hood as normal. I WD-40'd both the latch connected to the hood and the latched/spring on top of the radiator area. I see the cable is connected and not broken snapped...not sure what is going on.

Can I adjust it by unbolting the hood latch and move it. Everything seems to be operating , i have no problem with the latch by the front audi emblem in the grill but it just doesn't want to open if I pull it up.

Any ideas???

It's a 2000 A4 Quattro

 

Hmm. That's interesting.

I don't know if there's any way to adjust the cable, but it definitely sounds like the cable is "too long" somehow.

It may be stretched, breaking slowly, or etc.

There's clearly not much slack, so you might want to check the routing and condition of the cable (to start with). See if the ends are coming undone also.

 

WD40 is not a lubricant, no matter what anyone else tell you. I'd start with pulling the latch, cleaning it out until it's sparkling (make sure to get bits of dirt and grime out of the crevices and moving parts), and lubing it up with some white lithium grease.

 

This ^^^ is misinformation. "WD-40" stands for "Water Displacement" and it took 3 Aerospace Engineers engineers 40 tries to get it right. Hence the name "WD-40" and it is very much a lubricant.

Greases also act as lubricants, but you cannot say that a certain lubricant is not a lubricant simply because it is not a grease. "DuPont Teflon Dry Lube" is another perfect example of this point.

Sources:

http://wd40.com/files/wd40-2000.pdf

WD-40 History | History and Timeline of WD-40 Company

http://www2.dupont.com/Consumer_Lubr..._dry_film.html

Please do your research before you make claims like this (I know I sound like a ***** right now, but I'm not trying to be. I'm only interested in helping).

.

 

Ok I'll rephrase that. It's a decent lubricant, until it evaporates and leaves behind a kinda sorta greasy film that really does nothing to lubricate. Dry lubricants work by leaving behind bits of graphite or teflon, they don't lubricate very well comparatively but they don't attract dust and dirt which is their whole point. WD40 leaves behind a greasy film that will attract all kinds of grime while providing even less lubrication than dry lubes.

WD40 does a whole lot of things, but nothing particularly well. Actually I'd say it's pretty terrible at everything it does, which is why I haven't bought a can in years.

 

Fair enough.

I think it's safe to say (I agree) that a higher viscosity lube would be preferable in this case, but IMHO, WD-40 is still incredibly useful and versatile.

Having said that: No matter how useful it is: I can't stand white lithium grease. It's so "ugly" and "obvious". I've had the same can for years now.

Maybe try some wheel bearing grease?

.

 

I hate to leave threads hanging without being resolved. The issue was related to routing, somehow the cable poped out of the latch track on the bottom...all is good now.