FML! Hood Release Latch.

[vboy720]

ok so i took my car to les schuab today to get an alignment. after everything was done the guy told me that he couldnt get my hood shut. I have never had that problem, but when i went out there the hood didnt seem to catch the locking mechanism. so i figured maybe the hood release inside the car is still pulling for it to stay open. As soon as i pull and push to make sure its in the correct position, the handle which your fingers pulls on, breaks off.:bash:

I honestly think the guy broke it before i touched it, and kinda placed it back knowing i would try to do that. but now im not sure what to do or how to fix it. Any ideas?

its a s14.

[Forge_55b]

If he pulled it and it broke, it was going to break anyways so blaming the dude for your failing part won't work. Figure out what actually is broken and replace it......pretty simple

[kidbandikoot]

shitty bro... broke my handle once .... 45 bucks from the dealer .. pretty pricey for cable n plastic but whatcha gonna do

[vboy720]

ok so i can just replace the handle then? i was thinking i had to replace the WHOLe entire assembly.

[Sileighty_85]

I think the handle is molded with the cable asembly.

[kidbandikoot]

yea it is i thought n tired the same..

[chiboy002]

hot glue/crazy glue

or just buy the right length cable and make one from metal

[surge s14]

or hood pins with locks

[vboy720]

daym. so now i gotta replace the whole cable? that sounds like pita.

[mewantkouki]

It's not that big a deal. Fender linders and drivers side wheel have to come off. Pulling the front bumper and actual fender make it 100X easier though. Relocating that pos is something anyone with a lowered car has to do at least once.

[97240TB]

I have a 97 hood lever and cable... I could send it to you if you need one, PM me.

[vboy720]

I have a 97 hood lever and cable... I could send it to you if you need one, PM me.

thats super cool for the offer, but i been researching all day and it seems that kouki and zenki have a different cable. dunno why, but sucks for me. thanks for the offer.

[[email protected]]

At least you didn't have a latch problem and your hood flew into your windshield making you look not so boss.

(source : it's happened to me years ago. GG)

just get some aerocatch hoodpins and call it a day

[nathanong87]

If u get hood pin please don't get aerocatch. Those are ugly

[ericcastro]

If he pulled it and it broke, it was going to break anyways so blaming the dude for your failing part won't work.

Is this the dumbest thing you have ever heard???

great logic.

[ixfxi]

daym. so now i gotta replace the whole cable? that sounds like pita.

aww boo hoo, gotta replace a part on your car. thats life bud, get over it. its a fucking cable, it doesnt last forever. change it and close this useless thread.


If he pulled it and it broke, it was going to break anyways so blaming the dude for your failing part won't work. Figure out what actually is broken and replace it......pretty simple

Is this the dumbest thing you have ever heard???

great logic.

actually, i agree... its not anyones fault that the fucking cable broke, it just broke. change the shit and be over with.

man, some people.. always gotta blame someone for shit happening. ever heard the expression "shit happens"

[codyace]

actually, i agree... its not anyones fault that the fucking cable broke, it just broke. change the shit and be over with.

man, some people.. always gotta blame someone for shit happening. ever heard the expression "shit happens"

I'm with ya on that one. It's not like they have never opened a hood, or were malicious about it.

[94_240sx]

It's better than what happened to my freind. Parking brake cable snapped at inspection station. Of course, inspection tech pulled it. He had to fix and couldn't pass the inspection because of that. You know shit happens. Things get old and waiting to break you know.

[Forge_55b]

Is this the dumbest thing you have ever heard???

great logic.

just saying, it was going to break eventually and unless he tried to open the hood with some bionic arms, i doubt it would have stayed together after a single pull from anyone

[c72c]

Just buy a new/used one.
Zenki and kouki have the same length cable and the mount the same.
takes about 30 minutes to swap it out.
pull the fender, take out two bolts from the handle, use a flat head to pop the cable end out of the latch, pull the handle and cable out. reverse order to install. It's really simple.

this is all you're replacing, except for the latch.
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/ac2/beno842/ENGINE/S14hoodreleaselatch-72-1.jpg

[ericcastro]

If I take my car to a shop, and something comes back broken, that wasn't broken when it was left, then its their fault.
If I send my cell phone off to get fixed, and it comes back broken, thats their fault.

The least they need to do is call nissan, and deduct the cost of the part, and install it for free.

You cant have a shop change your starter, and have to pull your high pressure steering line out of the way a little, have it break, then just leave you with a broken line. You shouldn't leave and place a business with more damage done then when you show up.

[vboy720]

aww boo hoo, gotta replace a part on your car. thats life bud, get over it. its a fucking cable, it doesnt last forever. change it and close this useless thread.






actually, i agree... its not anyones fault that the fucking cable broke, it just broke. change the shit and be over with.

man, some people.. always gotta blame someone for shit happening. ever heard the expression "shit happens"





i agree and disagree. I think he didnt know how to operate the hood latch. instead of pulling straight on it, he probably thought it was a handle kinda like car door handle.

[vboy720]

oh and i ended up just fuckin buying everything online for $105 cable and latch. just sucks because dont know how to install it. so some more stuff i gotta do now...

[ixfxi]

If I take my car to a shop, and something comes back broken, that wasn't broken when it was left, then its their fault.
If I send my cell phone off to get fixed, and it comes back broken, thats their fault.

The least they need to do is call nissan, and deduct the cost of the part, and install it for free.

You cant have a shop change your starter, and have to pull your high pressure steering line out of the way a little, have it break, then just leave you with a broken line. You shouldn't leave and place a business with more damage done then when you show up.

aww come on eric, you gotta be like the worst kind of customer.. ya cheap bastard

i mean seriously, your car is a mess, it reflects cheapness in the 240 community. and here you are going to say, if, and i say IF, you ever take that missle in for service.. which i am sure you dont, but if you did.. the mechanic is liable for your latch failing?

this is the error in your thought, you make it seem like he has some anti-midas touch, that makes things disintegrate. if something is old and frail, it can break.

reminds me of my dad, hes SOOO cheap and always patch fixes things. when you go to adjust the seat in the mercedes, the adjuster breaks and he yells "you broke that!" ... why? because hes cheap, he doesnt mention that it was already broken and that he already attempted to glue it

so... man up, because in the real world people with shit-pile cars dont collect for their misfortune. it happens to everyone.. deal with it.

[ericcastro]

aww come on eric, you gotta be like the worst kind of customer.. ya cheap bastard

i mean seriously, your car is a mess, it reflects cheapness in the 240 community. and here you are going to say, if, and i say IF, you ever take that missle in for service.. which i am sure you dont, but if you did.. the mechanic is liable for your latch failing?

this is the error in your thought, you make it seem like he has some anti-midas touch, that makes things disintegrate. if something is old and frail, it can break.

reminds me of my dad, hes SOOO cheap and always patch fixes things. when you go to adjust the seat in the mercedes, the adjuster breaks and he yells "you broke that!" ... why? because hes cheap, he doesnt mention that it was already broken and that he already attempted to glue it

so... man up, because in the real world people with shit-pile cars dont collect for their misfortune. it happens to everyone.. deal with it.

lol, Im the opposite of cheap.
But I dont let people get away with bullshit.

If you take anything in for service or repair, it should not come back broken.
Plain and simple.
I expect the service industry to be professionals, thats why i pay car shops, best buy, at&t and film companies good money, cause i expect professional service.
I done expect buttons to fall off electronics and phones when i get them back from being repaired.
i wouldnt think i would have to worry about my car coming back working from service.

[lysticalz]

previous owner put a honda civic latch cable on mine =.=

oh wells still works even though its custy

[ixfxi]

lol, Im the opposite of cheap.
But I dont let people get away with bullshit.

If you take anything in for service or repair, it should not come back broken.
Plain and simple.
I expect the service industry to be professionals, thats why i pay car shops, best buy, at&t and film companies good money, cause i expect professional service.
I done expect buttons to fall off electronics and phones when i get them back from being repaired.
i wouldnt think i would have to worry about my car coming back working from service.

wrong industry, eric

you're comparing apples with oranges. lifespan on ANY modern electronic gizmo is what, a couple years... 5 is seriously pulling it. now you're talking about a phone, who repairs phones? i havent had a cell phone in over 10 years, but who does this? maybe changing a screen or something like that, thats minor. but most of the time phones are not repaired, they're replaced. rather, this is the problem of today - everything is disposable.

this is, of course, quite the opposite when it comes to my audio equipment.. which some dates back to the mid 70s. assuming i was going to try to repair an old amplifier, there are no guarantees. the equipment is old and you're trusting a repair guy to do the best he can.

but moving to cars, you cant expect any component on your vehicle to be exempt from damage. for instance, what if you remove a headlight and the clip breaks? headlights, like interior panels, use cheap plastic clips to secure them. this stuff breaks all the time, there is nothing a person can do.. neither common individual or professional mechanic. no special tool or technique will remedy the situation.

perfect example is the front side-marker on an s13... ever try to remove them after 10 years when the paint and foam is practically fused together? and we're supposed to do what, slide them to the side and compress the clip to remove the marker. suuuure.

shit happens, bud.

[s13 drifta]

Going to Les Schwab was the first mistake. They have high school kids in there working and they don't know shit about cars. I stopped going to them because they don't hire people that I can trust, even mounting and balancing tires.
If I had them brake something while working on my car, I would make them pay for it. This incident does not surprise me one bit, they need to hire people with common sense.

[ericcastro]

I had my cell phone repaired twice, then had it replaced the 3rd time.
Ask any blackberry owner, they get track balls replaced and fixed all the time.

It would be like taking your black berry to get fixed for a screen, and having it come back and the guy go, think your track ball is messed up. deal with it.
Fuck that, no ones gonna deal with that.

If the guy had some alignment thing worn, and it broke, and they fixed it and added the cost it, i can see that.

But to leave a customer high and dry is BS.

comparing doing light work and breaking clips isnt waht happened.
Its more like if some work had been done on some lights on an S13.
everything is cool.
But the technician says his door is having a hard time latching.
So dude goes out, grabs his door handle, and it comes off in his hand.

Thats pretty much what happened.

If people think crappy customer service is fine, then keep getting screwed.
When i have things repaired, they come back in better condidtion, not worse.
And not with unrelated parts broken.

[vboy720]

im a sales rep for verizon, and i know how bad i hate a customer that bitches and wines about everything. i probably should have made a big deal about it, but i didnt want to be "that guy." I know that if i was trying to take a customers phone case off, and i was "pushing" instead of "pulling" it would be my fault, and i would replace it. It just wasnt in it for me to make a big deal, because they do hook me up with good prices on tires, mounts, etc.

[1337]

it is a hood latch. you all make it sound like there is a wrong way to do it. you pull it and the hood opens. they do that all day. it broke because your car is old and probably a hoopty; you are getting it done at some cheap in and out shop. a 12yr old will pull the latch just like a 70 year old. stuff broke, fix it. qq more.

[codyace]

If the guy had some alignment thing worn, and it broke, and they fixed it and added the cost it, i can see that.

That's just the thing, when that stuff happens (and it does all the time) customers expect us to eat the cost as 'it wasn't broken before, we had to have purposely done it'...this is the same sort of example.

Would we have left the car leave broken? Certainly not...but we ALWAYS call the customer first to explain to them that it needs mroe stuff...and even still some people get pissed and expect us to eat it...'sorry' doesn't happen that way.

It's one thing if they take the car in for service and hae it come out with a broken window...but a part that could be broken in normal operation is another. He was going for an alignment...the workers may have had to open the hood for some reason...it's possible. Again, if they lets say broke a seat belt in the rear passenger side, that's another.

[ixfxi]

once again, he's right.

[theboy]

cut the old cable out. unbolt/remove the stock latch. And add hood pins. Aerocatch are nice and arent tooooooooo expensive. Plus you can lock them. Stock hood latch is a pain in the ass and is going on 20 years old for you. So itll probably fail soon anyways

[ericcastro]

im a sales rep for verizon, and i know how bad i hate a customer that bitches and wines about everything. i probably should have made a big deal about it, but i didnt want to be "that guy." I know that if i was trying to take a customers phone case off, and i was "pushing" instead of "pulling" it would be my fault, and i would replace it. It just wasnt in it for me to make a big deal, because they do hook me up with good prices on tires, mounts, etc.

Well, if they hook you up with other stuff, i can see letting it slide.
Just sucks someone not using the latch right broke it to the tune of $100 :(

it is a hood latch. you all make it sound like there is a wrong way to do it. you pull it and the hood opens. they do that all day. it broke because your car is old and probably a hoopty; you are getting it done at some cheap in and out shop. a 12yr old will pull the latch just like a 70 year old. stuff broke, fix it. qq more.

He was saying that he suspects the guy tried to use it like a lever instead of the pull kind.
I think the pulling wire kind like ours is old technology now right? lol

[vboy720]

well, my hood stil isnt fixed, but i did pay for everything, so theres nothing more to do. But now i have a bigger fml thread. please chime in if you can help.