How do you open a hood with the cable broken under the hood at the latch?

Answer 1

This is a procedure to open the hood when the cable has broken that is valid for a 2003 Corolla:

1) The cable may be stretched:

a) Pull on the hood release handle,

b) Get to the cable underneath with some pliers/vice grips and pull it more than what the handle can manage.

c) Replace the cable before the next time!

2) The cable may have broken at the release handle:

Same as 1) above if you still have some cable inside the car

Same as 3) below if there's no cable inside the car.

3) The cable may have broken at the hood latch or anywhere in between:

a) If you can safely lift the front end of the car (e.g. with jack stands), do so

b) From below, you can reach up to the latch (between the grill and the radiator) and remove the plastic cover; no tools required, it's just held there by a few plastic tabs. Pull down on the two tabs on the bottom and pull the cover toward the front of the car. You can then wiggle it out to the left or right.

c) See where the cable usually comes into the latch assembly: looking at the assembly through the grill from the front, it comes in on the right, at the bottom of the assembly, behind what is immediately visible when looking through the grill. If you don't have a Corolla, maybe try to find pictures online to see where the cable goes if you can't figure it out by looking at it.

d) Using the handle for the jack (with the 2 bends in it), insert the handle end (not the one with the hook that you put in the jack) through the grill, on the left of the assembly, and press (toward the right) on the part that the cable would usually pull on. If the cable was your problem, the hood will pop up at this point.

In an EMERGENCY you can jack the car up and do the steps under 3) above. Try to keep only your should/arm under the car and keep you head away from the metal bits that would crush it if the car were to fall. This is potentially very dangerous but you can do everything with the jack and jack handle so it can be useful in emergencies (such as being out of washer fluid many kilometers away from your destination in the winter and not being able to see if you don't clean your windshield).

If 3) above doesn't work, your problem may not be the cable and I can't help you (the cable was my problem so I stopped there).