2003 Toyota Corolla and your hood will not latch how do you find out what is wrong and how to fix it?

Answer 1

I have the same vehicle, and have already had the same problem. It resulted from trying to shut the trunk and the latch is already triggered. Hence it hits on the piece it should latch around and moves it down. In my case the two 10 mm bolts that hold that in place were loose, or so I thought, because I could move it up and down by hand. When I tried to tighten it, the bolts would not tighten, so seems the welded on nuts inside the enclosed area you cannot access are stripped.

My solution to the problem was to fold my back seats down, remove the black plastic trim over the latch first, then crawl in the trunk with a flashlight and screw driver, and have someone shut the trunk while I held the latch up. Once it was closed and latched I had them keep very slight pressure on the trunk lid so it shut just firm enough so it would not rattle around. I then took out a fine black marker from a shirt pocket and marked around it as best I could. Then I opened the trunk again, and held the piece in place with a small pair of pliers, and took the mig welder and put a couple of tack welds on each side of it.

That was over a year ago and it has been fine since. Your other option to fix it "right" is too remove the rear bumper cover, use a hole saw to make a big enough hole to work through in the body to access the necessary area, and drill out the exsisting nuts that are there from in the trunk, then hold a nut in place through the hole below, to wind a new bolt into. Your choice, I took the cheap and easy way out, I was also concerned with once I drilled a hole down there it would become a water and wet debris trap and encourage rusting.