For some reason why my 03 acura tl latch for my hood won't close (fully lock) anymore. Personally, I am strong enough to close it but just yesterday one of the two latches won't completely lock my hood. Its giving a 2-3 in. space. I barely know anything about cars and I don't plan on spending a lot of money going to a shop.

Please help!!

 

pics please.

 

Did you recently hit anything?

or had work done?

would love to see pics of latch and pics of hinges.

 

@justnspace I didn't hit anything and had no work down on it. I opened it yesterday to refill some windshield washer fluid and the hinges didn't want to lock. I hope these pics help.

 

make sure hood release inside the car is PULLED!

I forgot that my hood release wasnt pulled, and I thought I broke my latch, so I had to crawl under the car and unscrew the latch to open my hood.....

then I realized that my hood release inside the car wasnt pulled.

 

I tried a couple of times pulling the inside leaver and used a screw driver as my hood latch to if it worked but still no, "click" (lock). unless I did it completely wrong.

 

Look down at the latch, and you should see the wire portion of the hood cable, with a little ball on the end. There's probably a 1" area of cable from the end to an arm on the latch. Use a screwdriver to pry the arm to your left as you face the car until it touches the ball. It shouldn't take a lot of effort. If this works try working some penetrant or lube into the latch. This is what I see most of the time.

 

the latch looks a little bent forward to me is it not???


i second the pentrating lube (PB blaster) NOT WD-40

 

I was able to fix it! thanks for the help.

 

It does look a bit bent but the main problem was fixed. Ill get it checked later. Even though the latch is working now, should I still put the PB blaster?