Hi folks

Some a-hem backed his pickup into our Discovery II and took off without leaving a note. He (or she) pushed the bull bar back against the lip of the hood, and now we can't get it open to do the necessary repairs. We only have liability insurance on the old beast, not including uninsured driver, so the repair costs are coming out of our pocket book.

The hood release inside the cab is ineffective. The only alternative I have right now is to try using a crowbar under the lip of the hood. That will probably break or bend something else, however.

So, if anyone has a sure fired method of getting the hood open, please let me know.

I'm quite happy to dismantle the front of the car from the outside inwards (instructions please!) as we also have to replace the front bumper plastic. What I don't want to do is cause more damage. The hood isn't that bent and can probably be saved, so I don't want to wreck that either.

Thanks.

 

Remove the drivers head light assembly and work your way up towards the hood release cable. Some people have mentioned getting to the cable housing, cutting it and working with it till they can actually get to the cable wire, then pull it. Might work unless there is too much pressure on the actual hood latch and then you are looking at forcing it.

 

Thanks

Unless I get lucky I think I'll leave it to the body shop :-)

 

Here are several other ideas. https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...ght=hood+latch

 

I just did this with my '99 RR 4.0 - cable broke and couldn't open hood. Had enough clearance to wedge the working side up about quarter inch, got a 90degree screwdriver into undo the 4 screws that hold the plastic black grille in, took hours! Finally got it out, then easy to reach in and release the remaining hood lock. Found the cable was fine, but the plastic neck part had broken, fixed it using high-tensile wires and guitar strings to hold it in place. All works fine now.
kevin@dokdoc.com